Archived Story
Bancroft Bay Park is in danger
Published 9:49am Monday, August 13, 2012A request to my nature loving friends: Bancroft Bay Park is being used to expand a Frisbee golf course. I walked those trails with my friend Sara when she was suffering before she died from colon cancer. When Marshall was a baby and while I was pregnant with Carma. The U.S. government gave the city of Albert Lea a land grant to make that area a park, as it is an ancient Native American burial ground. Now for money a Frisbee golf course is moving in. They have cut up the branches on the trees, destroyed habitat for birds and shoreline animals and have left pop bottles, garbage and waste along the trails. People who walk their dogs have to watch out for the Frisbee players, not the other way around. The Frisbees are hard, and knock the bark off the trees and kids climb the trees and break off branches to retrieve their stuck Frisbees.
The City Council meets Monday at 7 p.m. Please show up to support the moving of this golf course to a more suitable location.
1. This land is a federal land grant that was used to keep the sacred land protected.
2. The Frisbee golf players are not respecting the park, by leaving garbage and damaging the trees.
3. There are many other undeveloped areas that would work far better for Frisbee golf.
4. How stupid is it going to look during the Rendezvous to have big orange baskets up?
5. Pet owners have used the trails for years and years. Now they risk injury.
6. Brush, branches and plants are habitat for wild animals, and it is being removed.
I know the City Council won’t let us speak, but maybe a showing would have them table it until more investigation.
I am not against Frisbee golf, just this location! There has to be other places more suitable that wouldn’t be risking habitat. What about the old golf course development? If I were to build a nice home there, I would love nothing more than to have my kids walk outside and be able to play a game. If development moves in, it could be moved. There is a large lot behind Hardee’s that has been open for years, down by the old waste treatment center, out by the landfill. Expand the one by Southwest School.
The world is in crisis. We should do all that we can to protect our parks, before they are gone.
Would you want people playing Frisbee golf at Graceland, Hillcrest or Lakewood cemetery in the future? We’ve done enough to the Native Americans, please respect their loved ones place of rest.
Shelley Pederson
Geneva
This letter is simply wrong as far as I can tell. I am a disc golfer myself but nature lover first. I have been playing DG for some time and have seen more than my fare share of wild animals (deer, birds, muskrats, beavers and the like) and have never once noticed them being displaced. Every course I have been to has made accomidations for the natural habitat of the region and this one is no different. Ross Brandt has said he/we are more than willing to work with people and the city to ensure the natural environment is disturbed as little as possible. I will agree however that SOME people who play disc gold do not respect the value of the course they are playing or the wold life around it and leave their garbage where they will and yes DEAD branches do get broken when looking for lost discs but a greater majority of us do NOT go out of our way to destroy living creatures. If you knew anything about the sport you would know that many of us are nature lovers and dosc golfing is one of many ways for us to get closer to nature. Also after some research I found NOTHING saying that it is an ancient burial ground for anything let alone Indians. The contract between the city and state was to remove the mink farn and puchase the land for recreational use (disc gold is a recreational sport). I wonder if anyone has thought about the added revinue to local businesses with the addition of a “gold” course in Albert Lea? We would finally be able to host professional disc golf tournaments and have some more huge names in the sport bring their fans and followers who will spend money in town when they come.