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County board should OK deal to improve Sawyer playground

A proposal that’s going to be presented to the Marquette County Board of Commissioners Wednesday instead of today because of the primary election has a great deal of merit, especially since it requires no up-front public investment and only modest maintenance funds thereafter.

A handful of local organizations wants to install playground equipment, a parking lot, a pit toilet and disc golf course at Little Trout Lake Park at K.I. Sawyer. Marquette County owns and operates the park.

According to a story that appeared in The Mining Journal on the matter, the playground equipment, the parking lot, toilet and the first few holes of a Frisbee golf course would be constructed and funded by the Gwinn Lions Club, with the remainder of the disc golf course funded, installed and maintained by local organizations Disc Da U.P. and Club (906) Disc.

The county would be responsible for “limited maintenance of the area” but “does not have to apply or administer the grant and construction,” or provide matching funds, Sawyer Director of Operations Steve Schenden stated in a letter.

“The projects would require minimal maintenance from the County, improve the property and would be easy and inexpensive to remove if they were abandoned,” Schenden’s missive states. “All agree this is a good plan and a good thing for K.I. Sawyer and surrounding communities.”

County staff reportedly thinks this is a good idea and from what we can see, so do we.

Certainly the additional facilities will require more in the way of maintenance dollars. We’re not disputing that. But unless those costs are unexpectedly high, something we don’t expect, we believe this is your basic win-win proposition for all concerned.

Starting at $3.23/week.

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