Wannigan Park in Frazee gets funding thumbs-up from Becker County Board

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – Organizers making a push to turn Wannigan Park in Frazee into a regional destination presented a $150,000 funding request to the Becker County Board on Tuesday.

Plans for the regional park are still in their beginning stages, but, Karen Pifher, owner of Creating Community Consulting, said, according to their studies, for every dollar of investment spent into the park, the region and Frazee, can expect triple that amount returned through economic spending by the park’s visitors.

“Wannigan Park will be one of the only regional parks north of St. Cloud in Greater Minnesota,” said Pifher. “The regional impact, estimated by Minnesota Parks and Trails, is almost $4.50 for every $1.70 invested. So just recognizing that this is a very significant economic development investment for Frazee and for our region. We’re really excited about the increased retail traffic, tourism, sales, jobs, everything that this will bring.”

The total cost of the Wannigan Park development proposal is $10.8 million, but that cost is broken up into three different phases.

Pifher said the group is still focusing on Phase I of the project, which will provide roads, trails and install camping areas at Wannigan Park so visitors will have places to access.

She also said the Wannigan Park location will be right in the middle of three prominent major hiking trails that pass through the state.

“Within the park, the Heartland Trail will come from the south and go to Highway 87,” she said. “The North Country Trail comes from the north and goes down throughout the park and the state water trail, the Otter Tail River, goes through there so they all connect. This will be a huge opportunity for camping and for sightseeing. There will be many oversights, kayak, canoe launches and other opportunities within that park. “

Following the presentation, the Becker County commissioners all seemed receptive to the idea and funding request.

Barry Nelson, chair of the Becker County Board, said the project would be an ideal recipient of the county’s sales tax dollars that must be used for road and trail projects, but they wouldn’t be able to authorize the funds until after an annual public hearing in December.

“Our sales tax revenue has gone up considerably every year,” said Nelson. “So I think that’s a good fit. But, with that, we have to have a public hearing.”

The county commissioners did agree to submit a letter of support and become the financial host for the various grant applications for the project … because this is a road improvement (fund). It’s an annual review of what projects, and these trails are not part of it as of now. We’d have to change that, and say that in a public hearing and then identify those.”

The funding request is expected to be addressed during the Truth in Taxation hearing on Dec. 14.