MANKATO — Mankato’s second dog park and its second full-sized municipal baseball field would be the featured additions to Sibley Park as part of $1.65 million in proposed renovations to the flood-damaged north side of the city’s premier park.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency authorized $540,000 for repairs to the section of Sibley Park closest to the confluence of the Minnesota and Blue Earth Rivers following the major flooding that struck the area in the summer of 2024. The funds were the amount deemed necessary to bring the park back to its pre-flood condition.
But city officials wanted to explore alternatives to the trio of softball fields and large parking lots traditionally there, wondering if other amenities might be more reflective of community needs and less prone to flood damage.
The plan they came up with was presented to the City Council as the elected officials viewed the ruined softball fields last week.
“And this isn’t the first time it’s flooded,” Administrative Services Director Parker Skophammer said. “It’s flooded multiple times.”
This softball field and two others in Sibley Park that were destroyed by the 2024 floods would be replaced by a single baseball field and a dog park under plans that could be underway by May.
Instead of resurrecting three ballfields with three sets of backstops, bleachers and dugout areas, the baseball park would cut those numbers by a third. The ballfield’s home plate would be located closest to Sibley Park’s knoll, an area that floods less severely and dries out more quickly. The home plate areas of the softball fields, by contrast, were closer to the river.
Skophammer and Facilities Director Jim Tatge also noted that the softball fields hadn’t been used much in recent years even as Mankato’s Franklin Rogers Park, home of Mankato’s municipal baseball park, became increasingly busy.
The Sibley Park baseball diamond would provide an alternative beyond Franklin Rogers and the field at East High School for a variety of teams. Mankato offers a high-quality complex of miniature baseball fields adjacent to Rosa Parks Elementary School for the Mankato Area Youth Baseball Association’s younger teams, but the Sibley Park field would be a full-sized option for older players.
“It would provide opportunities for Mankato high school teams, MAYBA and the Legion team to utilize,” Skophammer said.
Outfield fences would be 400 feet from home plate in straight-away center field and 330 feet at the foul poles.
The plan calls for the elimination of the sprawling L-shaped parking lot that runs along the softball fields and rarely has more than a handful of vehicles in it.
Doug Balfanz watched his dog, Sky, jump over an obstacle at the popular Kiwanis Recreation Area dog park in 2016. A second municipal dog park is being planned for Sibley Park, possibly arriving as soon as May.
A smaller lot would be built just south of Sibley Parkway to serve the new dog park, which would consist of a half-acre spot for small dogs and a large-dog area totaling 0.85 acres. The fenced-in canine play spots would be at the bottom of the Sibley Park sledding hill, well beyond the point where they would interfere with sleds.
“We’re talking limited infrastructure — a fence and a play area,” Skophammer told the council.
Mayor Najwa Massad said preserving the sledding hill is mandatory considering its long tradition of use by generations of Mankato kids, including herself.
“You’ve not taken anything away, but you’ve added,” Massad said. “To me, it’s ‘Wow!’”
File photo
A thick coat of mud caked the softball fields at Sibley Park, as well as nearby parking lots, after severe flooding in the summer of 2024. A repair plan developed by city officials would turn 1.35 acres of that portion of Sibley into Mankato’s second public dog park.
Other council members agreed and instructed staff to seek public comment on the concept, which would be financed with the FEMA contribution, interest earnings on federal assistance provided to the city during the pandemic and $90,000 in municipal funds from a yet-to-identified part of the budget.
Construction is tentatively planned for May.
Council President Mike Laven predicted that a portion of the community would oppose adding amenities to an area that will undoubtedly flood again.
“The consensus I keep hearing is, ‘Just quit doing this and make it a grassy area,’” Laven said.
Skophammer, speaking later, said staff aimed to minimize the level of damage that future flooding would cause in developing the concept. Instead of multiple dugout and seating areas and backstops with deep footings, the new baseball field layout would put only shorter, shallower fencing in the most flood-prone areas.
And major flooding of the park isn’t happening as frequently as some residents might think. The last significant flood damage prior to 2024 was in 2014, he said.
“We also had some minimal flooding in 2019,” Skophammer said. “However, given the location of the proposed ball field, this event would not have impacted the field.”
The Sibley dog park is likely to be a hit based on the popularity of Mankato’s original and only public pooch playground at the Kiwanis Recreation Area on the city’s far north side. East-side residents, though, will undoubtedly wonder why that part of town wasn’t selected.
Skophammer said there aren’t currently any plans for another dog park, but he said people should speak up if that is a priority.
“We are continually looking for feedback on what park amenities residents would like to see as we look to enhance existing parks and as we look to build new parks in the future,” he said. “We would encourage residents to share that feedback if desired.”
The Sibley Park plan is an example of meshing needs with an opportunity.
“We’re trying to fill a niche,” he said. “This — operationally and from what we’re hearing from user groups — is the most bang for the buck.”