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<br /> <br />Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes <br />September 10, 2025 <br />--------- <br />Page 2 of 14 <br />golf can happen there. He said he came up with a challenging but fun disc golf course that would require <br />very little mowing. He also came up with an area that would be good to have the parking lot identified <br />by an orange square. He shared that he hadn’t actually shot the distances yet with a range finder. He <br />used GPS, which gave him shorter numbers than he thought, and it was using a disc golf app called <br />UDisc. He entered the coordinates, and then it gave him the distances. He has slowly been going out <br />there and looking at it. He thinks it would be great to have a course there, and it would be a good <br />addition to the community. Mr. Schreder said after the time he was last here, he had a couple of <br />questions. Is buckthorn removal something that the city will work at to remove in this park? <br /> <br />Commissioner Niziolek said it is the unanswered question as they move forward, he thinks. They have a <br />lot of issues in regard to managing natural resources within our parks. He thinks of managing natural <br />resources as something that parallels the activities, so this is something that would not prevent disc golf. <br />It would be something that would be an element in the course. Commissioner Niziolek said, without <br />buckthorn, it is still a course, and it could be a great course. It is an issue that they will struggle with <br />within all their parks over the next decade or so. <br /> <br />Mr. Schreder said that safety is always the number one consideration when designing a course. He <br />reviewed the slides that showed costs for another course that he designed in Otsego pre-covid. He <br />showed photos of examples of what he thought would be good tee pads. He said the tees don’t have to <br />be concrete poured but with the soft ground there would need to be class five or gravel underneath. <br />Mr. Schreder said disc golf causes a lot of erosion. He does have three people that would be willing to <br />help out and contribute volunteer time off season. He hopes to continue the discussion of disc golf at <br />Burr Oak. <br /> <br />Commissioner Niziolek said that Mr. Schreder spoke about the erosion issue and one of the things that <br />he was hoping they would gather from the summer is the impact that people would be having. In other <br />words, there would be a couple of tees set up, and they would be able to see what is happening in <br />terms of the erosion element, because this site is really sensitive to erosion, because it is all sand and <br />that is one of his reservations, because he thought eventually it would just be a disc golf course in a <br />sand dune effectively. He asked Mr. Schreder if he had any thoughts in regard to his concerns about the <br />erosion. Mr. Schreder said it is a concern and is at Bunker Hills in Andover right now. He said it is <br />actually called Savannah Dunes Disc Golf Course. Mr. Schreder doesn’t actually know what equipment <br />Elk River has and isn’t sure about that. Commissioner Niziolek asked Mr. Schreder if he sees that as a <br />potential problem there. Mr. Schreder said personally he doesn’t have enough natural resources <br />experience like Commissioner Niziolek has. Personally, he thinks erosion creates a more disc golf feel <br />as far as faster greens and elevation change. <br /> <br />Mr. Schreder said he guessed it is the kind of thing you would just have to find out. Chair Anderson said <br />one of the things that he didn’t mention was vegetation removal to create fairways. Mr. Schreder asked <br />Chair Anderson if the lines he showed on the map of the disc golf course look like there would need to <br />be more vegetation removed than just buckthorn removal. Chair Anderson said he doesn’t know. Mr. <br />Schreder said disc golf holes can be anywhere from five feet wide, to an open field, even up to 1,000 <br />feet. The holes that he has designed on this course have a few narrow fairways but basically removing <br />the buckthorn would be all that would be needed. He shared that some of the holes would be pretty <br />tight and narrow, but some disc golfers like that. Commissioner Niziolek said that with this particular <br />property he sees shrub removal and red cedar removal as something positive that would happen, but <br />protection of the Burr Oak should be a high priority. He thinks there is plenty of room for vegetation <br />removal on this site to create a nice setting. He doesn’t think that would be a hurdle as long as they are <br />protecting large Burr Oak trees.