Parks wants to be proactive
Dale Parks would like to see the city of Brainerd make more progressive decisions and he also wanted Ward 4 voters to have a choice in November.
Those were two factors that resulted in his filing for the Ward 4 seat Thursday. With his filing there is now a contested race for every seat that will be decided in November's election for the Brainerd City Council.
Dale Parks
"We're not necessarily always progressive," Parks said. "It makes sense to be proactive instead of reactive."
The longtime Brainerd resident said he's aware there will be tough budget decisions for the council to make and said he would like to see the council continue to work with the Brainerd Lakes Chamber and with the Brainerd Lakes Area Development Corp. to attract more businesses and manufacturing to the city.
Parks, 55, said he's concerned with the high percentage of renters in Brainerd, particularly in the southeast and northeast portions of the city. As a 10-year member of the Southeast Brainerd Residents Association and a former president, he said it's difficult to encourage renters to become more engaged in the community. He said the neighborhood groups have been a positive force for the city in the past decade, although the difficulty is to sustain individuals' involvement.
The candidate also serves as chair of both the Brainerd Transportation Committee and the Brainerd Housing and Redevelopment Authority. He said he would like to see the College Drive project move forward because it would relieve traffic congestion, provide an alternative to Washington Street and provide safety features to intersections near Brainerd High School.
"Washington Street is rather congested," he said.
Parks has also been involved in the Healthy Community Partnership, a Blandin Foundation program, and Brainerd for a Lifetime, a committee that worked with long-term plans for safety issues and safe affordable housing. He said his experience on city committees gives him a good background on the issues.
"There still is a large learning curve," Parks said.
A Pine Street resident, Parks is a supervisor in the child support and income maintenance units of Crow Wing County Social Services. He has worked there for 29 years and has been a supervisor for 15 years, he said. He's lived in Brainerd since his family moved here when he was in sixth grade. Since then Parks has spent all of his life in Brainerd, with the exception of one year when he lived in Benson.
He said he'd work to build consensus on city issues.
"I do believe we need more cooperation between council members," Parks said. "It just seems there appears to be a lack of cooperation, a lack of common goals. I know it's really difficult when you get such a mix there."
While acknowledging citizens and council members need to be heard, Parks said he would like to see more constructive criticism and more examples of people agreeing to disagree rather than prolonging an argument.
"It's probably not as civil as I'd like," he said.
Filings in Brainerd close at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Filing earlier were mayoral candidates James Wallin (incumbent) and Guy Green; at-large candidates Bonnie Cumberland (incumbent), Howard Brewer, Michelle Doree and David Colvin; Ward 2 candidates Ed Shaw, Kelly Bevans (incumbent), and Jan Burton; and Ward 4 candidate Steven Wolff.
MIKE O'ROURKE may be reached at mike.orourke@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5860.