Hastings Parks & Recreation Director Chris Jenkins gave the Journal a quick update for the happenings around Hastings related to projects in the parks around town. The update started with the closure of two boat ramps with asbestos found in the park during the construction at Lake Isabel Park. He gave an update for the tennis and pickleball courts, and the thought process when exploring updates at both the Hastings Civic Arena and Veterans Athletic Complex.

Lake Isabel and the Mississippi River boat launches

The boat launch at Lake Isabel is completely closed for all trailered boats, and the upstream lane of the Mississippi River boat launch is also closed. Those that use kayaks, canoes and other small watercraft that can be carried down the ramp can still use them.

“The Isabel launch sustained quite a bit of damage this winter and spring from the ice sheet pushing against it during the spring when the ice sheets out a little bit around the edges. The wind pushes that around and undermines it a little bit and shifted it quite a bit,” Jenkins explained. “Also, to my understanding is that the pressure ridges on Isabel were the biggest that local residents have ever seen. So significant damage to that ramp has it currently closed. We are working with the Minnesota DNR to see if we can get some replacement parts for it.”

Replacement parts sounds like an odd way to describe a boat launch, but this particular launch is built similar to a slatted bed platform. There are slats of concrete held together with metal loops to keep the launch from separating. The DNR typically uses those in lower traffic, lower current launches because they are lower cost.

The Mississippi launch has an issue on the upstream side. A roughly 10-foot by 5-foot chunk of the concrete there broke off due to the support material being washed away. Several things can affect the erosion of the underlying materials, the most obvious is the actual current of the river, but prop wash from the barge traffic as well as recreational boaters trying to power load their boat onto the trailer is more likely to affect the area near the ramp. The downstream ramp is still currently accessible.

“We are trying to work with one of the portable barge companies that comes up and down the river. They did a little bit for us a couple of years ago. They have a little portable barge with an excavator sitting on it so they can bring in a bunch of rock and they can put it around it. Then beyond that, the DNR is going to come down and take a look and see if there's more extensive repairs that the city and DNR should be looking at for that for that chunk. But we're going to try and get it fixed up so it's good for the rest of the year,” added Jenkins.

Tennis and Pickleball courts

The tennis courts at Roadside Park near Todd Field are scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt starting in late July. The process will take until September to complete with the underlayment being replaced and a brand-new playing surface being installed. When done, there will be six dedicated pickleball courts and three tennis courts. Two pickleball courts occupy the same space as one tennis court. This rebuild was bid to be under $394,000 but that could go up depending on what is underneath the courts currently.

Hastings Civic Arena and Veterans Athletic

As was reported recently in the Journal, Hastings City Council approved the hiring of a consulting firm to assess the current situation, come up with a plan and concept drawings and a cost to improve both the Hastings Civic Arena and Veterans Athletic Complex. The civic arena will be looked at this year and Veterans Park is slated to be looked at in 2024.

“We just had a preliminary walkthrough with our consulting team at the ice arena just so they can get familiar with the space and look at the things on the staff side that we are contemplating and the issues that we know could be better. In the next month or so we are going to have some stakeholder meetings with at least our major users like the hockey boosters, the hockey association, high school coaches and maybe the athletic director and River Blades Skating School to talk to them about the needs that they see to keep the facility great for the next 30 years,” explained Jenkins.

The plan is to talk to the people that travel to and utilize other facilities around the region. They see things that are great and functional at the other spaces they visit, and they also see things that do not work as well. That is the kind of input needed for making the Hastings arena better for the next 30 plus years.

The same approach will happen with Veterans Athletic Complex next year. Even though the plan is to do the assessment next year at Vets, that did not stop me from taking the time to draw up a very, very basic picture of the potential land use out there. Many residents are not familiar with exactly how much space is available as park land. The trick with writing this portion of the story is simple, I have a vested interest in that park because of two things, one, I am the president of one of the ‘shareholder groups’ as Director Jenkins identifies the user groups. Two, I am the Chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission and Director Jenkins had previously asked me to do the very thing that will be shared to the public for the first time here in the Journal.

I am no architect, but I did my best to make the drawing somewhat close to scale the best I could with the tools I had. According to Jenkins, I did a “good job showing a basic idea of what can be done out there.” He did say he would do things a little differently, but the image created is a great starting point for organizations like HYAA, the Hastings Hawks and Hastings Football Club to talk about what each organization wants to see out there.

The bottom line for Vets right now is the park occupies roughly 43 acres of land. The city owns every bit of the land that was utilized in the drawing created. Currently, the land that is dedicated for parks is about 121 acres and the drawing occupies around 160 acres total.

The idea is to move all organized sports off the neighborhood parks to a central location. This will not only take stressors out of the neighborhoods, but also help make the maintenance of the parks much easier for city staff. It would also allow the redesign of multiple parks around town.

The discussed plan is to have one championship level field for each sport played at Vets. Those championship fields would be full turf with more of a stadium feel to them. A full-sized baseball field, a full soccer field, another field that could be a multi-purpose youth baseball, youth softball and adult softball field would all be turf with the rest being grass. The field at Pioneer Park would be moved to Vets and there would be a more than a dozen new fields for baseball and softball at all levels to use. In this basic drawing, soccer and lacrosse would get a total of seven new full-sized fields upping the number from four smaller fields.

The biggest addition would be a large sports dome and a dedicated maintenance facility on site. The dome is a welcome addition, and a regional need. Currently there are only two other functioning domes in the region, Dundas, which is privately owned, and West St. Paul, which is owned and operated by the City of West St. Paul. A third dome could be discussed, the one in Rosemount, but that older dome collapsed and has yet to be repaired. The addition of a dome allows additional income to offset costs and a location for turf sports to practice and play during inclement weather and the winter.

Again, this is a preliminary brainstorming of what to add out at Vets and the drawing is to show there is a lot of potential out there.

Lake Isabel Park

Construction at Lake Isabel Park has been halted due to some asbestos being found in the ground by the excavation team brought in to set the foundation for the rebuilding of the park there. The history of the land where Lake Isabel Park is was not entirely clear of what was there before.

“I know there was a schoolhouse there from the early 1900s,” said Jenkins. “I just have to be careful what I say about the possibility of what else could be there since there are no other official records.”

The care in that discussion is easy to explain. The excavation team found some debris that has asbestos in it. That prompted a call to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MNPCA). They came out and investigated the debris found and confirmed asbestos. In asking questions about the history of the park, some rumors had surfaced about the possibility of other debris being buried there. The MNPCA took samples from around the park to examine to see the extent of the asbestos contamination. They have not returned their reports back to the city, so work is currently paused until directions are given in how to proceed.

Neighborhood Basketball Courts Replaced

Three neighborhood basketball courts have had their asphalt replaced and the city needs to give the asphalt time to cure before painting the color layer on them. The timeframe for that last piece is unknown as of this printing.

Dakota Hills Playground Equipment and the big red slide at Roadside Park

Dakota Hills playground equipment is ordered, and the city is waiting for production and delivery of the equipment. The big red slide is in the same holding pattern, and it was ordered back in October of 2022.

Batting Cages at Vets Park

The turf has been confirmed for delivery on July 14. Because the Hastings Hawks are the primary organization spearheading the batting cages, the arrival of the turf simply means that things can again begin to move forward. The surface is mostly ready for the turf and should be made officially ready in the next few weeks. The Hawks may need to wait until the end of the regular season to finish the assembly of the cages.

Lake Rebecca

A project manager has been hired for the habitat restoration, enhancement and expansion of the Lake Rebecca Park area. Part of the project will include renovating the boat launch and parking lots. With the project manager being hired, they can begin the finer details of the planning process.