In reply to the Burleigh County commission suggestion that the Bismarck Park District be given the McDowell Recreation Area properties, park board President Mark Zimmerman made a counter offer of considerably broader scope.

The issue of McDowell Dam took center stage at the county's budget hearing on Thursday.

Gailen Narum, vice president of the Burleigh Country Water Resource Board, which owns McDowell, told commissioners there were only three options regarding the recreation area.

"One is to implement the master plan. Two is to continue the status quo, and third is to downsize," Narum said. "Maintaining the status quo and downsizing are not acceptable to the water board because, in this consumer-based society, a product must be properly packaged if you want to sell it to a user or to the park district. If you continue as it has or downsize, it will lead to abandonment. Public use will dwindle and the park district won't want it."

The water board maintains that as owners of the site, it is obligated to support it under its contract with the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the McDowell family.

Water board attorney Dave Bliss said that the property could be transferred, but that it would take time because of the agreement in place with the NRCS and McDowell family.

Commissioner Claus Lembke said that he didn't feel transferring the ownership of the property to the Bismarck Park District was unreasonable. He said that the county contracts with the park district to manage the facility. A similar situation once existed with Sibley Island, which was successfully transferred to the park district, and has done well with the popular camping area and park.

"It wasn't good for us to be in the middle, so we negotiated for the transfer. There was no need for us to be in the middle," Lembke said. "I would be in support of doing so again. The county is the wrong entity to be owning it. We don't have the resources, so we hired it out."

Lembke asked Narum whether the water board had explored transferring the property to the park district. Narum said that it was part of the strategic plan and it was something they were looking at.

Zimmerman took to the podium with his prepared statement regarding the park district's interest.

"In responding to an offer to give McDowell Dam to the Park District with the assumption of no funding, we ask that it be placed in writing from the county commission and water resource district with conditions, considerations, legal responsibilities and funding proposals to the park board. I would be willing to take the offer in a formal form to the board for consideration and response," Zimmerman said.

But the park board president then made a counter offer that caught the interest of the county commissioners.

The proposal calls for all county park facilities, lands and leases to be deeded and transferred to the park district for operation, funding and management. This includes the Missouri Valley Com-Plex, better known as the fairgrounds. This includes the portion of the fairgrounds the county is looking to sell with all proceeds, of up to $4 million, used for development of the fairgrounds. Funds over $4 million would be placed in a park trust fund, with the interest used for ongoing park projects outside Bismarck city limits.

The proposal also calls for the county to provide $75,000 in operating funds for McDowell Dam in 2007 and continuation of the joint mill. In 2008 the county can drop funds for McDowell operations but will continue the current county parks levy of .69 mills for three years, at which time it can be discontinued.

Further, the park district will be allowed to apply to the water district for capital project grants.

Zimmerman asked that a committee with representatives from the park board, county commission and water district be created to review the plan and at the end of 60 days provide a recommendation.

"There are a lot of good, interesting points there. Something we really have to think about,"Commissioner Doug Schonert said.

Commissioner Marlan Haakenson made the motion to offer McDowell Dam to the park district with no funding in place, but it died for lack of a second.

"That seems to me a drastic move,"Lembke said. "It could still come, but these are friendly suggestions. I'd be maybe happy if it takes place two or three years from now. I'm really impressed with the offer. I think it is positive."

"I agree with Commissioner Lembke," Commissioner Jerry Woodcox said. "I think to pick one in McDowell and give it to them is premature. Ithink we either have to make a commitment to start our own park and recreation program for the county or go to the city and let them do it. They are the professionals and we are not."

Former state Game and Fish Department director Dean Hildebrand appeared before the commission in support of continued improvement to McDowell Dam.

"It's my perspective that it gets more use than people realize," Hildebrand said. "I don't know how many dollars and cents can be put into a body of water so close to the city. But the great things we've got going are the green spaces, and they pay bigger dividends than we'll ever realize."

Hildebrand suggested that the water district continue to look at alternate sources of water for McDowell and its watershed.

"I'm here to tell you that, in my belief, water will be a very important object in the state and throughout the United States," Hildebrand said. "There will have to be long range planning, five, ten, fifteen, twenty years in advance."

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)