By Shannon Fiecke, Staff Writer
More than a half-million dollars is headed for Scott County parks from the state’s new sales tax fund, but it won’t be enough to open the long idle Spring Lake Regional Park.

Instead, the county is opting to invest state dollars in the newly acquired Cedar Lake Farm in Helena Township and develop a strategy for acquiring land in the Blakeley Bluffs area.

With the cost of initial site preparation work alone at the undeveloped Spring Lake exceeding what the county expects to rake in from the constitutionally dedicated sales tax, Scott County Parks Manager Mark Themig said it made more sense to put the dollars toward Cedar Lake, which already has infrastructure in place.

“It has the potential to have the most significant return on investment,” Themig said. “There’s just not enough funding to do much of anything [at Spring Lake].”

Once the Legislature finally decided how to split up park and trail funding in the metro area, Scott County had little time to select projects, Themig said.

Another factor weighing in the decision to proceed at Cedar Lake was Spring Lake’s close proximity to two regional parks operated by Three Rivers Park District. Those are Cleary Lake and Murphy-Hanrehan, a largely undeveloped park reserve that is open for cross-country skiing and mountain biking.

The county has approximately 1,200 acres of its own land across three parks.

The county’s Doyle-Kennefick Regional Park will also continue to remain closed and undeveloped. Because of necessary land acquisition there, development would likely first occur at Spring Lake.

Because of fiscal constraints, the county quit putting additional funds away each year for the development of its park system. (The current park operation budget is $868,000, the majority which goes to Three Rivers for running Cleary Lake and Murphy-Hanrehan).

The county expects to receive $542,000 in 2010 and 2011 from the constitutionally approved tax, out of a total of $65 million that is to be distributed statewide for parks and trails. Carver County will get about $90,000 less than Scott County, while others, such as Anoka and Ramsey, will receive more than $2 million each.

More than $1 billion is expected to be generated statewide in the next 25 years for parks and trails alone. The tax will also fund clean water, outdoor heritage and arts and culture initiatives.

For more on how Scott County plans to spend its constitutional amendment dollars, read Thursday's print edition of the Shakopee Valley News.