Larson recognized for years of service to Carrington park district

All good things must come to an end.

In Keith Larson's case, that "good thing" is the 43 years he has served as the treasurer of the Carrington Park District.

As he hung up his hat as the CEO of Dakota Central effective December 31, he also retired from his accounting duties for the park board.

When Larson started at Dakota Central in 1979, Warren Hight was the manager. Hight was also treasurer for the park district, so when he retired shortly thereafter, Larson was asked to take over his duties.

"All the books were here [at Dakota Central], so it made sense that everything stayed here," Larson recalled.

Now, 43 years later, the records will change hands, and Karmen Freeman will succeed Larson as treasurer. During his tenure, Larson has served with 60 different elected park board members. When he started, the board consisted of Marvin Skytland, Jerome Page, Leland Gudmundson, Jeff Stangeland and John Foster.

"When I started all the accounting was done manually, in big ledgers," he recalled. "The payroll took hours to do in the summer," with many lifeguards, maintenance workers, baseball coaches and others on the roster.

All the checks were typed on an IBM Selectric typewriter, and he spent about 200 hours a year on duty for the park district.

Now, with modern technology to aid his efforts his time commitment has been cut in half. The majority of that work is done in the summer months, as nearly all of the activities are centered around warm weather.

The Carrington Park District manages two parks, the Carrington City Park along Hwy 281, and Westside Park near Northern Plains Electric.

The primary facilities the park district now maintains are all of the grounds, approximately 12 acres between the two parks, as well as the swimming pool, softball and baseball diamonds, and nine RV/camping spots.

Annual expenditures for the park district totaled $214,000 in 2022, including $30,000 in capital improvements, primarily for the softball/baseball diamonds.

The most significant expense for the park district is the outdoor swimming pool, built in 1989.

Larson said the cost to operate the pool has increased by five times its original cost since he has started in 1980.

The plans and specs for the pool were prepared by Interstate Engineering in 1988. Larson recalled that the first bond referendum for the pool failed, so it took cost-cutting efforts and a second vote to make the project a reality.

"That was one of the biggest projects that we did," Larson noted.

The pool has undergone some repairs in the past several years, namely for leaking water lines underneath the concrete decking. They hired a Minneapolis firm to pump a gas into the lines and find the leaks so they could ultimately be repaired.

Larson said the pool is "actually in a pretty decent operating state" now that those repairs have been made. Associated Pool conducted an inspection and found that the pool bowl itself was in very good condition.

"As long as the bowl is good, that is the big expense," he explained.

That said, it requires regular maintenance, including periodic sandblasting and repainting.

The filtration system and the boiler also need periodic updates to remain operating efficiently.

It cost the park district $86,000 to operate and maintain the swimming pool in 2022 (including staff salaries), Larson said, and income from memberships, admission and swimming lessons totaled $38,000 last year.

The primary source of revenue for the park district is property taxes, and the total collected in 2022 was $167,000.

Baseball and softball program fees generated about $15,000 last year, and the camping spots brought in around $5,000 in revenue. The district organizes the summer baseball and softball programs for ages 5-15.

The costs for grounds maintenance is not separated by program, so it's harder to gauge the total expenses for those programs, Larson said.

He noted, however, that the newly formed 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Carrington Youth Sports, has contributed significant funds for ball diamond improvements, (more than the park district has.)

Another key improvement made recently was an electrical service upgrade, from 30 amps to 50 amps, for the camper spots. Water and electrical service is available at each site, with a single dump station in the park.

The park season runs April 15 – Oct. 15, with groundskeepers on staff during that time.

Dennis Freeman and Marvin Dunn take care of the grounds, while Brian Harrington is in charge of maintaining the pool water and equipment. Rusty Sherman continues to help with pool equipment maintenance as well.

"He has been around almost as long as I have," Larson said with a smile.

"I've enjoyed it," Larson said of his four-decade-long accounting career with the park district. "We've got a very nice park for a community our size."