Ramsey council approves bids for Elmcrest Park building

The Ramsey City Council Dec. 10 unanimously approved bids to construct a new community building at Elmcrest Park.

This will be more than a place to buy beverages and snacks for people attending youth athletic association games. A large meeting room will give associations and the public at-large a space to discuss issues important to them.

The new community building at Elmcrest Park will include a space for selling concessions, a large meeting room, storage space and a gathering area that includes a fireplace.

It means that the Anoka-Ramsey Athletic Association will not have to put up a tent when hosting tournaments that host teams from out of town. Lisa Muller, president of the association, said it had to put down wood boards because Anoka County said it could not just place items on the grass if it wanted to serve concessions.

Muller is excited to see this project move forward, which she said will get people from out of town to come to the businesses and it helps the associations keep the fields up.

Weve been working on this diligently for the past two-and-a-half years, but weve been talking about it for 10 years, she said.

According to Muller, the association has had as many as 172 soccer teams with about 3,000 kids at some tournaments. The association schedules games at Elmcrest for traveling teams, which start as young as the fourth grade and go up through U-17.

Mark Riverblood, parks and assistant public works superintendent for Ramsey, said the tournaments are often three or more days. There is at least one traveling tournament in July and another in October.

With parents and other spectators one can easily double the number of park patrons (over the 3,000), over the course of a couple of days, Riverblood said.

Muller anticipates even more teams could be interested in coming to play at Elmcrest with this new facility in place.

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Ramsey council approves bids for Elmcrest Park building