BREEZY POINT — The Breezy Point City Council concluded its Monday, Feb. 6, meeting with an update from city officials on the expansion of the disc golf course, then conducted a contentious public hearing on the matter.
Ultimately, council member Brad Scott moved to have city staff look into the costs associated with restoring the entire course to its natural state. When no council member agreed to that, he moved to have staff look into the costs of restoring just the newly expanded portion of the course, to which the council agreed.
City Administrator David Chanski and Public Works Director Joe Zierden informed the council and the roughly 40 residents in attendance that as of Thursday, Jan. 12, the project has cost $49,750.57, and further expenditures are expected to cost roughly $6,000.
“That should put us around the $55,000 to $56,000 budget, which would get us almost $30,000 under what we anticipated for the cost of this project,” Chanski said.
Zierden said he expects a late spring or early summer completion date, depending on the weather.
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The public hearing — which lasted nearly two hours — began with resident Bill Toft presenting to the council a petition with 63 signatures demanding that “tax dollars collected from Breezy Point residents be allocated for the primary benefit of Breezy Point residents. Any projects that quantifiably do not benefit Breezy Point taxpayers should not be considered and those already started should be shut down.”
Prior to opening the meeting to the public fully, the council heard from two advocates for the disc golf expansion, including Shane Humphrey, of Pequot Lakes, who serves as director of the Breezy Point Disc Golf Club.
He said he and his fellow local disc golfers are “stewards” of the course and strive to keep the area clean and safe for families. He said they have never had an issue at the course that required law enforcement, and an estimated 5,500 rounds of golf were played there in 2022.
The remaining four speakers were largely in opposition to the course’s expansion, citing concerns with issues regarding safety, how police would address or even get to an issue on the course, and labor costs both of building and maintaining the expansion.
Several also spoke to a perceived lack of communication from the previous council on this issue, particularly when construction began and trees were cut down.
Mayor Angel Zierden asked that speakers switch to topics that help the city move forward — as she and her fellow council members cannot change what has happened — and encouraged all residents to call or email her when issues arise.
Toft asked that council member Michael Moroni recuse himself from voting, as he has said he frequents the course with his family and has been an advocate for its expansion. Another speaker cited a conflict of interest as Moroni has been an administrator on the club's Facebook page.
“Shane Humphrey created a map for our first 18 holes,” Moroni said. “He asked me to help with creating that map and putting it on the Facebook page, as I so happen to work with a graphic designer. I said, 'Let me get admin privileges so I can see exactly how that design was working.’ This was probably in 2015 or 2016 … Since then, I have not done anything with those admin privileges. It should have been revoked. I have since revoked it, because I did nothing for it.”
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The mayor suggested several times that a special meeting and public hearing be held on the matter in March.
The final public speaker suggested the council pass a moratorium on all work involving the project.
“Well, it’s February,” Chanski said. “We aren’t working on it.”
Dan Determan, sports writer/staff writer, may be reached at 218-855-5879 or dan.determan@pineandlakes.com. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/@PEJ_Dan.
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