Putting Green park

to cost $1.7 million

Board plans to seek grants,

funds from community for mini

golf course that is also an

environmental learning experience

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The proposed Putting Green Environmental Adventure Park, which will be designed to turn playing 18 holes of miniature golf into an environmental learning experience, will cost about $1.7 million to build.

With a completed business plan, two-thirds of the 18 holes designed and about $250,000 in grant money, Putting Green, Inc., officials now are able to put a price tag on the project that will occupy five acres on 20th South Street near the Minnesota River.

As it embarks on its most important phase of raising the $1.7 million, Putting Green, Inc., will continue its efforts to obtain foundation grants, but it also will have to approach the community for financial support.

"We have a very good business plan," said Brian Tohal, vice chair of the Putting Green, Inc., board of directors. "We were very conservative in estimating revenues, and very liberal in estimating operating expenses. But if we were to try to borrow the money to build it, the debt service load just wouldn't pencil out -- so that's why we have to raise the money."

The non-profit firm will be joining a growing list of organizations in New Ulm, including the New Ulm Medical Center, the Oak Hills Living Center and, most recently, Martin Luther College, in seeking community support for its project.

In support of the big-ticket price, Dr. Laurel Gamm, the board's chair and executive director, points out the project is much more than just an 18-hole miniature golf course.

"Putting Green mini golf is a part of a larger plan to develop a regional sustainability education and youth training center," Gamm said. "There also will be a high-performance interpretive center 'clubhouse' with classroom and lab, walkways and native plant gardens, an interpretive river trail and river monitoring program."

In addition to which, the building itself in its construction will incorporate a number of environment-friendly features, such as solar-powered heating.

"Not only will the individual exhibits be educational," Gamm noted, "the entire facility will be a showcase of sustainable design and construction, demonstrating the use of cutting edge energy technologies and resource efficient materials."

However, as discussed by Rich Huelskamp, energy information officer for the Minnesota Department of Commerce, during his appearance at the recent Green Expo in New Ulm, the new environment-friendly technologies tend to drive up construction costs because most, if not all, are as yet not mass-produced.

Gamm's belief that the park will serve a key role in helping people learn about environmental sustainability is bolstered by a letter of intent signed in August with the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Pat Hamilton, director of environmental sciences, said the science museum signed the letter of intent "to make it easier for us to share ideas and information. We're really interested in using the idea of miniature golf for an outdoor science park."

Hamilton said Putting Green, Inc. and the museum arrived at the same conclusion independently of each other that "miniature golf is a fun way to teach science and teach about environmental issues."

Hamilton said he was impressed with Putting Green's innovative approach in using kids' concepts in designing the 18 holes which, in this concept, are not holes but are "interactive learning stations."

"Putting Green Inc. has done, I think, some phenomenal work in developing schematic concepts for how miniature golf might be used to communicate environmental concepts," Hamilton said. "Now, the science museum is very good at taking schematic designs and actually turning them into physical working exhibits."

Therefore, the museum is interested in looking "at their schematic design(s) to see how they might evolve into actual outdoor exhibit components that could be used by both our exhibits and theirs," Hamilton explained.

"I see as a pretty unique opportunity for our students participating in the planning and design phases in using skills taught in schools and to see the design develop from a germ of an idea to reality," Superintendent Harold Remme of Independent School District 88 said.

"Having a facility like that in town would be a unique opportunity which would add to and strengthen our curriculum."

Putting Green, Inc., is aiming for groundbreaking in the fall of 2003 with opening of at least the first phase, probably nine holes, in summer 2004. That timetable coincides with the opening of the museum's outdoor park, also set for summer 2004.

"There's no question that it will have to constructed in phases as money becomes available," Gamm said.