What Improvements Do You Want To Your Parks System, City Asks

Beginning in late June or early July, the Inver Grove Heights Parks & Recreation Department will embark on a year-long study to determine which facilities in IGH should be kept and which are expendable.

Director Eric Carlson told a group of local business owners on Tuesday morning that the Parks & Recreation department is currently underfunded with regard to replacing, among other things, dilapidated tennis courts, basketball courts, park benches and trails.

"If people don't want their taxes to increase, then they'll have to know that certain things are going to go away," Carlson told Patch. "If they're OK with paying $1 extra then (IGH) can have other facilities; if residents are OK paying $10 extra, then we can have this much more." 

But Carlson is not convinced that simply replacing rundown facilities is the only way forward. The study will also consider expansion. 

"What do people want in Inver Grove Heights that might not be here?" Carlson asked hypothetically. "There are (Parks & Rec) facilities that other communities have. If we want them here, how do we pay for them?"

The study—which Carlson expects to cost around $75,000—will not consider  or . 

The study will be jointly funded through the Host Community Fund (80 percent) and the City Facilities Fund (20 percent).