Parks & Recreation Committee Meeting - May 28, 2026
Parks & Recreation Committee Meeting - May 28, 2026
The Parks & Recreation Committee met on May 28, 2026, at 5:30 PM in the Council Chambers to discuss park improvements, approve funding requests, and update policies. All votes were unanimous (4-0) with Alderperson Norell absent.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes from the May 11, 2026 Committee on Aging – Approved without discussion.
Presentations
- Red Arrow Park Beach Access Improvements Update – Parks & Recreation Director Brock Wetenkamp presented an update on the $1,557,000 project funded by city capital budgets ($1,000,000 total over 2025 and 2026), a Wisconsin DNR Knowles Nelson stewardship grant ($500,000), a T-Mobile hometown grant ($5,000), and a Manitowoc County Board of Realtors grant ($7,000). The project includes a one-way road, angled parking (reducing about 20 spaces but adding a pedestrian path to Green Street for access to Lincoln High School parking), a fully accessible switchback walkway to the beach (grades under 5%), three stairways, stone seating, an event plaza, and improved safety. Construction is on schedule for a July 4th weekend opening. Remaining funds (~$250,000) may be used for a cantilevered shade shelter over the event space, with footings to be installed before the concrete circle is completed.
Discussion Items
- Red Arrow Park Beach Access Improvements (Item 26-0470) – Committee discussed parking concerns, the proposed shade shelter, and future concession stand improvements. Alderperson Dunbar expressed support for the shelter but questioned its east-facing orientation and suggested funds be used for a larger concession area instead. Chairman Cummings and others noted the shelter would not block lake views and could be a signature feature. No action was taken; discussion only.
- Manitowoc Marine Band Fundraising Agreement (Item 26-0464) – Marine Band representatives requested a 50/50 cost-sharing agreement for $400,000 in repairs to the historic field house. Committee members expressed support but requested a detailed fundraising plan before referring to the Finance Committee. Alderperson Dunbar emphasized the need for a list of planned fundraising activities. The motion to refer to Finance passed unanimously. The Mayor noted a similar process was used for the skate park project.
- Future Meeting Date and Time (Item 26-0471) – The committee agreed to hold regular meetings on the 4th Monday of the month at 5:30 PM, except for June 2026, which will be Thursday, June 25, due to scheduling conflicts.
Key Outcomes
- Zoo Donation Tube Request – Rainbow Trout (Item 26-0462) – Approved use of $16,281.20 from the donation tube (from the Northeastern Wisconsin Great Lakes Sport Fishermen and the Lincoln Park Zoological Society) to purchase 5,000 rainbow trout, feed, and supplies for the zoo rearing pond. The donation tube balance after use will be approximately $70,000.
- Henry Schuette Park Playground Replacement Design (Item 26-0465) – Approved hiring Ayers & Associates for design services without a new RFP, using $2,500 budgeted for 2026. Alderperson Reckelberg requested that the design proposal be at or below the previous lump-sum methodology.
- Resolution Dissolving the Special Events Committee (Item 26-0466) – Approved. The resolution will go to the Common Council for final action.
- Special Event Policy Update (Item 26-0467) – Approved revisions, including a non-waivable $250 fee for new events requiring street closures to cover the cost of creating a proper street closure plan. Existing events with approved plans are exempt, and the fee applies only once per event layout.
- Future Meeting Schedule – Regular meetings set for the 4th Monday of each month; June 2026 meeting moved to Thursday, June 25.
Meeting Transcript
Digital private. All right, it's 5 30. We will kick off the very first ever parks and recreation committee uh meeting. Let's see, we got the mayor in attendance for it for this historic moment. You got a ribbon you want to cut or anything like that. All right. As far as our calling to order, we have everybody present except for Alder Norrell. Alder Norrell is not here. And I did not receive notification that he was not going to be. With that, then we'll open up to public comment. Anyone in attendance have anything they want to say for public comment for the committee? Is there anybody online? Nope. You wait for this update everywhere for the going once. Going twice. Public comment is closed. All right, then we'll get into presentations. And we do have a presentation this evening. It's gonna be on the Red Arrow Park Beach Access Improvements Update. So with that, I'll turn it over to Brock. I can see my slide. I can even hear you. Okay. All right. Can everybody hear me? Um so I I wanted to do an update on our our kind of our biggest uh park and wreck project this summer is our Red Arrow Beach Access Project. So basically what we're doing is we are um we're taking we're at Red Arrow Park. We have you know our existing uh parking lot and beach, and it it was and you all know this, but just a quick update. We we had some issues with access from the parking lot down to the beach. Parking lots up high, beaches down low, some steep grades, uh not really not great paths. So um with this presentation, we're gonna kind of go through the goals that we had with this project, um, our our funding sources, the planning and permitting that went into this. Uh currently we are in the construction phase, so we'll give a little update on that. Um, see where we're at with our our timeline, and then what's next with this project. Um project goals, uh improved accessibility to the beach area. Like I mentioned, um, we've had comments in the past, uh, parents, everybody trying to get down to the beach, struggling to pull their coolers down the hill, through the sand, through the uh beachgrass, just not not great access. Uh we didn't have steps, we had some some steep concrete ramps that we wanted to kind of replace with it with better uh uh accessibility options. Um improved safety. So we've had some accidents in the parking lot with with people traveling at high rates of speed and doing kind of dangerous things. So we you know, with this project, we wanted to improve parking lot safety, we wanted to improve pedestrian safety, and uh the combination of the two. And then the last uh goal here was to create a kind of a lakefront event and gathering space that can that the whole community can go to and enjoy. Um funding for this project. So the city graciously uh the Alders approved uh capital budgets in in uh 2025 and 2026, 500,000 each year. So phase one, 500,000. So we we kind of made a design that you know if something were to happen where we didn't get future funding, we could do something for 500,000. Um 2026, we were we we got this phase two funding. Um bringing the project up to a million. We can do a really great project, everything we hope for for a million dollars, and then um with with that budgeted funding, we were able to uh to get uh uh uh WIDNR, uh Wisconsin DNR Knowles Nelson stewardship funding in the amount of another 500,000 dollars, and then a T-Mobile hometown grant for 5,000, and then the Manitoba County Board of Realtors also donated 7,000 through a national association of realtors grant. Um other than that, we had a few various individual bench donations. So that being said, our total budget was up to 1,557,000. Um so the planning phase.
openpublica.com