STURGIS, S.D. – Members of the Sturgis City Council and the Sturgis aquatics committee met Monday night for an informal session to discuss the various concepts and different locations of a lakeside adventure park.
An outdoor water facility has been explored for over a year and after one of the public review sessions, the idea of expanding ballfields was added to the engineer’s conceptual plans.
That’s if the park is built on the fairgrounds property. There are also two other locations being looked at to build the park.
They are the Glover Property off Anna Street and the Richards Property, east of Scott Peterson Motors off Vanocker Canyon Road.
Of the two, the Sturgis Aquatics Committee says they like the Richards Property the best because it offers lower infrastructure costs and lake costs are similar to the fairgrounds property. Bob Bertolotto of Bertolotto Real Estate and Auction is working with the Richards Family on their sale, and says his clients are open to working with the city on an agreement. He also offered to give the committee and council a tour.
If the Richards Property is utilized, a new well would have to be secured if there is concern about using the same aquifer that supplies the city’s water. Sturgis Mayor Mark Carstensen says he doesn’t believe there would be a concern using the same aquifer.
Fennell Design has already presented the council three concepts for the Sturgis Lakeside Adventure Park, but they use the original fairgrounds property proposal.
No action was taken Monday night, but both the council and aquatics committee seem interested in wanting to continue discussions of making the adventure park a reality for Sturgis.
In fact, the council voted unanimously to ask the Sturgis Aquatics Committee to bring forward their recommendation for a location for the proposed lake to the council at their first meeting in February.
