At the Sept. 3 meeting, the Stanley City Council began discussions to hire Konect for shared website hosting to create a Parks website for online registrations for the Chapman Park Campground and City pavilions for 2025. The initial cost would be $12,000 with an annual hosting fee cost of $1500. City Administrator Nicole Pilgrim explained that the setup cost includes a one-time fee which is a large portion of the price plus any add-ons chosen by the Council that range from $350 to over $3,000. Alderperson Mark Fitzsimmons mentioned that he received feedback on campground reservation rates, specifically the extended stay rates and asked the Council if they wished to reconsider those rates and policies before approving the website hosting company. Specifically mentioning the “prime sites” next to the water, he questioned if the City wanted to establish certain camp sites as extended stay sites for people who come to the City to work at local businesses for an extended rate of time.
“We need proof that they are in town for that purpose,” Fitzsimmons said. “What we implemented in the past seems to have worked, we just have to make some adjustments,” he continued, asking about creating long term sites. Alderperson Jacob Huff offered having the campers move after a specific amount of time, no matter how long they have been there.
“Yeah, but then they are going to whine about that,” said Fitzsimmons mentioning that with long term sites the campers wouldn’t need to move.
“Let them whine,” replied Huff.
Fitzsimmons stated that he didn’t have a problem with Konect but he feels like the structures need to be determined first. Alderperson Jason Meyer asked if the policy questions need to be finalized before Konect can begin their work for the City.
“Anything to do with rates probably should,” answered Pilgrim
“The campground was packed all summer, wasn’t it?” asked Huff.
“This summer, no,” stated Pilgrim commenting that she believes camping reservations were lower this year than the previous year. Rates for Chapman Park campsites were recently increased to $40 per night for electric sites and $35 per night for non-electric sites and the discount rate for weekly stays was recently cancelled.
Fitzsimmons recommended looking into the revenue stream for this year compared to last year. “Has it dwindled that much?”
Alderperson Ben Wald requested that the specific add-ons would be chosen before the Council will vote on it due to the range in price per item. “There could be a pretty wide swing there,” he commented.
“I think we need to revisit that as a whole, have a little more discussion on it how we’re going to move forward,” said Fitzsimmons. “We’ve had a lot of feedback and it’s not all positive at that point.” Huff motioned to table the agenda item to the agreement of the rest of the Council.
The Council approved a standard security agreement with S.O.S. Security LLC for access control at the new Soo Line Park pavilion at a cost of $28.95 per month. Fitzsimmons commented that if this is successful it might be a good idea to implement this at other city buildings.
“You can’t get a person out there for $28.95 a month to open and lock facilities,” he stated.
Alderperson Laurie Foster asked if it can be cancelled if it ends up not working out.
Fitzsimmons said it probably could but then locks would need to be changed out.
Huff mentioned that it’s a one-year contract that transitions to a month-to-month arrangement.