by Dennis Dalman
The Sauk River Regional Park in Sartell will have most of its long-awaited amenities completed by next summer.
Located across from the Epic Center shopping area in south Sartell, Sauk River Regional Park opened about 10 years ago. It is a wooded park with the Sauk River running through it.
At the Nov. 22 city-council meeting, the council unanimously approved a bid of $109,980 to create a mountain-bike trail in the park. The low bid was submitted by Rocksolid Trail Contracting of Copper Harbor, Mich. The council also agreed to an altered design for the park’s shelter building, which will be smaller and with a regular roof rather than a vented one. Those changes will save $12,250 so the total costs of the amenities will not exceed the $450,000 that remain of a state grant that was given for Sauk River Regional Park years ago.
The concrete slab for the shelter has already been poured. The shelter itself will be 20 feet by 22 feet rather than the 24 feet by 48 feet in the original proposal.
City Engineer April Ryan presented an outline of the park plans to the council.
There will be two trails in the park – a regular paved trail from the parking lot to the shelter/plaza by the river and a specialized mountain-bike trail with features that will challenge the skills of people riding mountain bikes. Mountain bikes are designed and built for use on off-road riding, such as in rough or difficult (often steep and rocky) terrain. Rocksolid Trail Contracting will design and build that trail. It will be designed with challenging “features” on the trail made of wood, steel and rock. Various biking skills, from beginner to expert, are needed to maneuver over and past the trail features.
The cities of Sartell and St. Cloud previously agreed to a land swap that would allow Sartell to own land on the part of which the mountain-bike trail will be located. Sartell was given a 10.75-acre parcel of land that had been part of St. Cloud’s Whitney Park next to the Sauk River. In the land-swap, St. Cloud was given by Sartell a 13.8-acre of land on the south side of the Sauk River.
Previously, the bid for the other park trail (the regular, smooth, paved biking trail) was granted to Landwehr Construction of St. Cloud. Landwehr will also build the shelter project and plaza area next to the shelter and the Sauk River, which runs through the park.
All told, the total cost for the project is estimated to be about $466,000. That includes the two trails, the plaza area, the shelter, signage design and installation and design/construction costs.
Plans for Sauk River Regional Park have been years in the making. At times it was a frustrating process because throughout the years, council members and others could not fully agree on which amenities the park should contain and which ones it should not. In the past year or two, council consensus coalesced around the current projects.
This family is having a fine time on a mountain-bike trail. The photo is from the website of Rocksolid Trail Contracting of Copper Harbor, Mich., the company that received a contract from Sartell to design a similar mountain-bike trail in Sartell’s Sauk River Regional Park.
