by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
A parking lot that could cost the city in the range of $800,000 will likely be constructed in Pinecone Regional Park just to the east of the Bernick’s Ice Arena.
At a recent meeting, the Sartell City Council approved a conditional-use permit for the placement of 15,000 cubic yards of dirt fill on that parcel of property. The purpose of the fill is to raise the level there by three feet because it’s subject to water build-up in the warmer months.
That lot is part of the Watab River watershed.
Sartell City Engineer Mike Nielson said the parking-lot project would create 280 parking places. Currently, there are only about 90 in that area. Before the project, Nielson and his staff studied the soil-and-water conditions at the site, as well as consulting a 100-year flood-plain map done by the state.
The project might require some wetlands mitigation, which would affect the total cost. Putting fill at the site would have virtually no effect to cause water build-up or flooding elsewhere in that area, Nielson said. There will be a newly constructed pond at the site.
The council voted unanimously for the parking-lot fill plan.
Council member David Peterson called the ice-arena parking lot an “immediate need” because he noted all of the city residents and non-city residents who go to the arena need parking spaces, not just for hockey tournaments but for other general events such as big concerts.
A letter addressed to the council from Sartell-St. Stephen School District Activities Director John Ross also urged the city to approve a parking lot for that area. Parking near the arena has always been a struggle,” Ross stated in his letter. Another letter to the council from a resident in that area expressed concern that construction of a parking lot would cause flooding elsewhere in that immediate vicinity, but both Nielson and council member Amy Braig-Lindstrom said that would not happen, with Braig-Lindstrom further noting the lot would not be a paved one.
Constructing a parking lot near the Bernick’s Arena has long been a concern and priority for the Sartell City Council.