The pump track is seeking a permanent home, and the trails plan is up for review

The Cook County Parks & Trails Commission’s October 27 meeting was a working session on the two things now in front of it: where the bike pump track lives permanently, and a section by section review of the Cook County Comprehensive Trails Plan.

The pump track and skills park, run by the Sawtooth Cycling Association (SCA), currently sit inside the outdoor hockey rink at the Cook County Community Center, and have to be taken apart and rebuilt twice a year around the ice season. The location under consideration is the small triangle of land between the Pappy Wright and Arleigh Jorgenson baseball fields, largely unused and holding demolition debris from the old fields. Commission Chair Shane Steele is also the SCA’s executive director; the commission’s September minutes lay out the path plainly: recommendations from the Community Center Board and this commission, an amended agreement with Greater Minnesota, and a final land use decision by the County Board of Commissioners. Moving the track out would also free the rink interior for other uses, pickleball among them, if it were paved.

The bigger document is the Comprehensive Trails Plan. The commission has begun reviewing it section by section, October taking Sections 1 and 2: the mission, the action items, and engagement with the user groups. The review follows the County Board’s Sawtooth Bluff discussion: the City of Grand Marais declined the 50/50 split of the contract with HKGi for the Sawtooth Bluff plan update, and the two administrators are working on alternatives while the commission’s plan review proceeds.

The September discussion, recapped in the minutes in this packet, shows what the plan has to carry: the Pincushion Ski and Run Club and the Sugarbush Trail Association, which run the county’s grant in aid ski trails on roughly $8,600 and $14,000 a year respectively from the DNR, raised mowing and overgrowth along trail edges, the need for durable trail easements as shoreline real estate changes hands, and a shared way for skiers and first responders to report trail conditions and locate lost or injured people.

Votes

The commission’s meetings are working sessions of an advisory body; the packet records no formal votes for October 27 beyond approval of the agenda and the September 22 minutes. The pump track location and any trails plan revisions go to the County Board for decision.

Spending

None approved by this commission.