BLAINE, Minn. – (Aug. 27, 2015) – With a few words and a cut of the ribbon, the Lexington Athletic Complex was officially open. The park, years in the making, made a grand entrance on Tuesday night as hundreds of excited outdoor lovers enjoyed Blaine’s newest amenity. “We have a 38-acre park, basically have four multipurpose fields for soccer, lacrosse, and football. Two are lit, two are not. We have two full sized baseball fields. One has 90-foot bases the other has 75 and 90-foot bases so it can play 13 and under. Both of them are lit which is awesome because right now we only have one lit full sized baseball field in Blaine,” said Blaine parks and recreation manager Jerome Krieger.
The list of what this park has to offer doesn’t stop there. “We also have two lighted tennis courts, four lighted pickle ball courts, 4 outside NBA Basketball courts. We’re going to have a hockey rink here in Blaine finally on the east side of 65.”
Additionally, there is a playground that includes nods to the farm that used to sit on the land. That farm theme is also carried through in the main building at the park. “The City Council wanted the building to resemble something of a barn. So our architect actually looked at the Blaine history and looked at the two famous barns in Blaine, the Finn Farm and the Golden Lake barn. The architect did a wonderful job trying to emulate both barns in this building which has a full concessions stand, a meeting space, room for all the lawnmowers and everything, and a big storage area upstairs.”
This park took years to design and build but now stands as one of the largest parks in the city. “This project not only has taken not only almost three years to develop and build, but it’s one of the biggest parks as far as acreage and everything that has been done at one time. It is within our top three to four parks as far as acreage is concerned in the city of Blaine.” Blaine now has 64 parks and they are quickly approaching the projected final new park project. “This probably is the last big park, we’ll still build a few more neighborhood parks, we have one going right now and then we may have one or two more, so we’ll probably cut it off at about 68 parks. Like I said, 64 is where we are right now and probably about 67 or 68 we’ll be done with the amount of parks we have.”
Jerome shared with the crowd that this has been a wonderful project from him personally. He grew up near a similar type recreational center and he knew he wanted to bring something like this to Blaine. “Personally, like I said, it’s been my life for almost three years. Seeing it from day one, I walked out here when there was still barbed wire fence around the field and everything. To make decisions on where things are going or where they went and to see what your vision is on an open field and try to picture it when it’s done. It’s been awesome to see your dreams come true.”
