Board moves on park fixes

Paving the way for the development of Esko’s Northridge Park, the Thomson Township Board of Supervisors made a series of votes aimed at improving the town’s only park last week.

At the township’s Oct. 19 board meeting, in addition to voting to demolish the park stage and buy new tables and chairs for the pavilion, board members voted unanimously to sign a contract which will employ the Arrowhead Regional Development Commission to hire a design team, conduct surveys for community input and find potential funding sources for the development of the park.

“It’s going to be great,” supervisor Bill Gerard said. “You know that they’ll come up with some great plans and great ideas.”

The yearlong contract takes effect Nov. 1, and a community survey will be conducted potentially in December or January, according to Josh Bergstad, the ARDC’s principal planner for community and economic development. For its services, the township will pay the ARDC $12,500, using American Rescue Plan funds.

Bergstad is excited to work with the township. He told the Pine Knot News that his aim is to help the park board and the community articulate its vision and, “get something that is going to work for the community in terms of vision and something that can be affordable and can be implemented so that we will move from that vision to an actual project.”

While new beginnings for Northridge Park are in the works, the presence of the park’s stage will come to an end due to safety concerns.

In his motion to remove the stage, supervisor David Sunnarborg said, “We went down every avenue. We tried, in the beginning, thinking we could save it.”

But he added that with the roadblocks they encountered, it became clear it had to go. Gerard, the sole opponent of the demolition, suggested the board wait to hear what the ARDC had to say about the stage.

“There might at some point be something similar to that there, but this one needs to come down,” township clerk and treasurer Rhonda Peleski said.

The stage was an Eagle Scout project put together by volunteers.

“The town appreciates the work these individuals did,” Peleski said.

Another change to the park will be the replacement of the pavilion’s picnic tables. The board approved the $2,600 purchase of 14 tables and 60 chairs which are supposed to be more accessible and easier to clean and arrange. The park board will then sell the old picnic tables at a public surplus auction.

In addition to all the changes to the park, the board also announced a personnel change. Deb Kamunen will take over as the township clerk and treasurer effective Nov. 6, when Peleski retires after more than 30 years with the township.