The Mandan Park District board removed Tower and Optimist parks from its list of parks at Monday's meeting, feeling the parks weren't the best investment of the district's resources.

Hearings on the parks in January and February drew a opposition to closing the small neighborhood parks; more than a dozen people at each hearing gave plenty of testimony on why they wanted to see the parks kept open. But Monday evening there were no dissenting voices and the board quickly moved to close the parks, returning Tower Park to the city and deferring a decision on what to do with Optimist, often referred to as Canyon Park, until a later meeting.

Board Chairman Tracy Porter explained that in the case of Tower Park, the property belongs to the city, with the district leasing the property. "But Canyon park is a little different. It is park district property," he said. "If we decide not to keep it, we don't have to decide tonight."

District manager Cole Higlin told the board there were five keys to the decision on the parks. The first was the growth of the community, including its trail systems and facilities; second, is the equitable distribution of parks; third, the necessary enhancement to the parks to make them a viable part of the park system; fourth, the issue of safety and size of the parks; and finally, the additional stress they put on district resources to keep them open.

The district maintains 38 acres of parks. If one includes the softball and golf courses, the district maintains 435 acres. During the winter and fall, the district has five full-time workers, and during the spring and summer, that's expanded to 18 to maintain facilities.

Three major reasons to close the parks were their relative proximity to the newly developed KC Park, the cost to improve Tower and Canyon, which are without equipment and need landscaping, and the long-term maintenance costs. Equipment determined noncompliant had been removed from the two small parks a year ago.

"I'd love to have a little pocket park every two or three blocks, but it isn't financially feasible," board member Terry Kraft said. "If we want to bring these parks up to our standards, we'd have to invest $20,000 to $30,000, and I don't know if that's our best investment."

Kraft outlined what he feels are the top five challenges facing the district. They included: 1) a park for Marina Bay; 2) park for Fort Lincoln area; 3) development of the new junior high; 4) future expansion and maintenance of the walking path system; 5) and expansion of the community center.

In other activity, the boardheard that Prairie West golf course raised over $18,000 the few days it was open earlier this month because of the nice weather. The course brought in $3,700 in green fees, $12,800 in season passes, $500 in concessions, $856 for driving range use and $100 in pull cart rentals.

Early bird golfers came as from as far as Devils Lake, Minot, Fargo and Dickinson to play on the course which was the first to open in the state.