NORTH MANKATO — Tom Hagen has volunteered for enough advisory committees and planning groups to be sufficiently dubious about whether the gatherings will generate anything more meaningful than a stack of meeting minutes and a soon-to-be-forgotten action plan.

So that was Hagen’s attitude when he agreed to join the North Mankato Parks and Green Spaces Advisory Committee last spring. Now, 15 months later, he’s feeling more optimistic the new panel will bring noticeable improvements to his city.

“We’re relatively new, so I’m not sure how it will all pan out,” said Hagen, an instructor at Minnesota State University. “ ... I always have a lot of skepticism.”

But it’s starting to look like the committee is having an impact on city parks.

It provided financial support to the community-wide Million Tree Project, which planted thousands of saplings in Mankato and North Mankato last spring.

It will be working with a Minneapolis consulting firm on a $40,000 master plan for Benson Park, a largely undeveloped 70-acre piece of mostly bare land and water on the city’s north side.

It has become a permanent committee of North Mankato’s city government and will be making the recommendations to the City Council on what park projects should be in the city’s five-year capital improvement plan.

It has set up an endowment fund for city parks and is working to generate donations.

And it is moving forward on some smaller projects that could be done this fall or winter in Spring Lake Park.

“So I think you’ll see some changes in the next six months,” Hagen said.

He credits freshman Councilwoman Diane Norland for the committee’s progress.

“She’s the one who spearheaded this and said — rather than just do these things, we need to get some community input.”

The committee’s input was ambitious in an overall plan released in October. It included suggestions of a water park, ice rinks, massive tree plantings and countless smaller improvements to city parks.

The idea was to think big and implement the plan over as many years as it took. Norland, however, said people can be asked to wait only so long before seeing results of their work.

“With some things, sometimes it takes way longer than I have patience for,” Norland said.

That’s why the committee is doing some less-expensive smaller projects now.

For instance, cottonwood trees will be planted in Spring Lake and Wheeler parks, where towering cottonwoods are a striking feature of both. Thinking ahead to the day when those mature trees will die, the committee wants younger trees in the ground to eventually take their place.

When cold weather firms up the shore of Spring Lake, crews will be putting sandy beaches in several spots. The idea isn’t to make a place for swimming, it’s to allow people — especially kids — a route to the water’s edge.

A fishing pier and a recreation of an historic artesian well are also in the works.

“We’re talking about things like fruit trees and community gardens,” Norland said. “We’ve done a lot.”

The prospects for doing a lot more improved greatly when the city received legislative authority in May to impose a half-percent local option sales tax, authorizing part of the proceeds to be used for parks and trails.

“Bottom line, money makes it happen,” Norland said.

Vision does, too, and the committee is offering plenty of that, said City Administrator Wendell Sande.

“It’s a group of people with a broad diversity of interests,” Sande said. “So we’ve had some interesting discussions about what a park should be.”

The diversity of opinion may grow, probably next year, when the committee is expected to hold neighborhood meetings to get even more grass-roots advice into what North Mankatoans want from their parks.

“They certainly have been receptive, willing to listen to ideas,” Hagen said of city officials. “It’s fabulous to have some community input.”