| Blaine gets final MPCA approval to build disc golf course |
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| Thursday, 03 September 2009 | ||
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Life Editor Long-awaited construction of a new, nine-hole disc golf course in Blaine’s Lochness Park will start next month. The course will feature three different tee boxes.
The city must check with the MPCA regarding any land use at the former Johnson Brothers Landfill, which is capped and is part of the 90-acre Blaine park. Blaine entered into an agreement with the MPCA in 2002 regarding the former sanitary landfill, which is 28 acres and contains 1.5 million yards of waste. MPCA has placed four methane monitoring probes around the base of the hill in the park as well as stations to monitor the ground water for possible pollution. During the park board’s Aug. 25 meeting, Kappelhoff said City Forester Mark Shippee reported that city crews could begin trimming back oak trees in the park. Andover resident Michael Snelson was hired to draft the golf course design. Snelson owns Fairway Flyerz Disc Golf Outfitters, 2950 Rice Street N., St. Paul. “We are happy with his design, because it does address the younger throwers and those who will play for recreational purposes,” Kappelhoff said. Commissioner Tom Newland asked Kappelhoff if he knew of other area courses that featured blue, green and red tee boxes to serve players with multiple skills. According to Kappelhoff, the Blue Ribbon Course in East Bethel has a similar number of tee boxes on each hole, but that facility is an 18-hole disc course. “We had our course designed this way because if someday the MPCA allows access to the hill, we can make a fantastic 18-hole course,” Kappelhoff said. Newland asked if it would cost more to have 27 tee boxes as opposed to nine. Kappelhoff said the additional boxes would not dramatically affect the cost. “The biggest cost will be the nine baskets; those will cost about $3,300,” he said. “I think we will be well under that $10,500 that we budgeted for the project.” Snelson said in a separate interview that the course’s intermediate level distance of 3,540 feet puts it in league with the longer 9-hole courses in the state. The longer “Pro-Advanced” level tees, estimated at 4,320 feet, will make Blaine’s course the longest 9-hole in the state, according to Snelson’s estimates. “Actually, it will be the longest ‘Blue Level’ 9-hole course in six states – North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan,” Snelson said. According to Snelson, only one 9-hole course in Michigan has a “Gold Level” course that is longer. Thus, Blaine’s Lochness Park course should be a top draw. “Having three tee boxes makes this course unique,” Snelson said. “Blaine Park Board commissioners asked me to develop a true destination course design.” Snelson said his initial disc course design was laid out counter-clockwise and there was one hole that determined the alternative direction players would move. “That’s because low land sits between a couple of the holes,” Snelson said. “The blue levels were probably the easiest to layout; they traverse the entire park.” It was difficult to design three different skill sets into a course with nine baskets, Snelson said. Distance and difficulty ratings were a key course consideration. “Players will probably walk past the blue and red tees to get to the green, but there’s a unique hole view from each tee pad. It’s pretty interesting,” Snelson said. Blaine last had a nine-hole disc course at Jaycee Park. The former public course was built in 1983 as part of cooperative funding effort with the Blaine Jaycees. Tim Hennagir is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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