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A group of Annandale area citizens have reaffirmed that a
community center, trail system and skateboard park are
among their top priorities. And they've added development of the
city beach on Pleasant Lake, maintaining a vital downtown and
support for top-notch school space to the list.
Those projects collected the most votes from an estimated 60
people who attended an Annandale Area
Community Team visioning session Thursday night, Aug. 21,
in the Annandale Municipal Park pavilion. The meeting took place
exactly five years to the day that ACT invited residents to its
first visioning session to suggest projects that would make the
Annandale area better than it is.
ACT is made up of area volunteers and is supported by the
Healthy Communities Partnership Program of the Initiative
Foundation of Little Falls. A
community center was the most popular and ambitious
proposal to emerge from the 2003 visioning session. A trail
system tied for second, and a skateboard park project was also
suggested. Committees formed then are still working on those
initiatives.
At last week's meeting, the
community center again received the most votes, 22,
followed closely by development of a "thriving beach" with 20. A
"vital downtown" and connecting trail system collected 13 votes
each, and downtown redevelopment received 11. The skate park and
"exceptional educational space" each had seven votes while more
industry and business had six.
ACT chair Laura Hood Beckman said afterward she was pleased with
the turnout and believed the outcome would have been the same
even if more people had attended. "We really had a strong theme
going here with recreation and healthy living," she said,
referring to the support for the
community center, beach, trails and skateboard park.
People are saying they want recreation and healthy living, she
said, and they're concerned about those opportunities being
available locally so they don't have to travel to reach them.
She expects the existing committees will continue their work
with renewed energy, Beckman said. But moving forward on those
projects and any of the other things identified at the session
depends on people's willingness to volunteer and become
involved, she said.
The Community Center
Committee has said its goal is to have something built or in the
process of being built within the next 10 years. Co-chair
Marlene Young told the meeting it's working on identifying land
and conducting a feasibility study.
Renee Cardarelle, who chairs the Heart of the Lakes Trails
Committee, said an interconnecting trail system throughout the
community is its long-term goal. It's planning to put a
trail along County Road 38 out to Southbrook, she said, and will
be working on where to establish its next trail.
Skateboard park chair Maggie Freiberg said her group of
youngsters has raised over $4,000 but "we're still desperately,
desperately seeking land for the skateboard park." Roll up
sleeves "We really need to get our sleeves rolled up and find a
home for it," Beckman said after the meeting. "I think that's
something that can easily be accomplished." She'd like to see
the school district, city and Skateboard Committee come up with
a plan for a location. "I think we've been dancing around this
for five years and it's time to take a bow and make a decision."
A skateboard park would attract families to live here and bring
people to Annandale to use it, Beckman said.
The beach proposal suggested hiring lifeguards, providing
swimming lessons and starting a sailboat club.
A large group of interested people met at the end of the session
to form a committee. "I see people really concerned about our
downtown," Beckman said of the votes for downtown projects.
"They don't want to lose a vital downtown to the highway like
other towns have experienced."
Discover Downtown Annandale was formed last year and has become
part of ACT. 'Thumbs up' Beckman interpreted the education
proposal as meaning the
community wants the best space for learning so students
can work at their top potential, and general support for school
building improvements. She also called it a "thumbs up" for the
Annandale School District, demonstrating that people are "behind
it 150 percent."
Purchase of a portable performance stage and free Friday night
concerts in the park are two accomplishments of ACT's Arts and
Culture Committee that were proposed at the initial visioning
session.
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