Commission to reprint Great River Road maps, prioritize MnDOT rebuild of online "Plan Your Trip" tool

The Minnesota Great River Road Parkway Commission on its first-quarter 2025 meeting endorsed reprinting the commission's Minnesota map and prioritized rebuilding the commission's online "Plan Your Trip" interactive mapping tool.

Chris Miller, the commission director, said the subcommittee found distribution demand for roughly 25,000 maps from about 30 partner sites and that the chair authorized staff to request printing quotes and begin partner outreach. "We have responses in from that would involve distribution to about 30 sites and would be about 25,000 maps that people are asking for right now," Miller said, adding the commission will use remaining current-year funds and MRPC budget to pay for printing where possible.

Treasurer Anne Lewis, pointing commissioners to the packet footnotes, reported a $7,964.25 carryover balance and said printing should be considered as part of that available funding. "I always feel like the meat of everything is actually in the footnotes," Lewis said when she outlined the carryover and upcoming invoices.

Members debated how many maps to order and where to ship them; Miller said staff will include partner requests in the quote and keep a small on-hand supply for events. "We will also have some set aside if people order from the website and I fulfill those," Miller said. He noted storage constraints prevent ordering excessively large surpluses but that boxes for events could be retained.

The meeting also moved to prioritize a 1:1 rebuild of the commission's "Plan Your Trip" interactive mapping tool, which staff and MnDOT officials described as a higher near-term priority than maintaining seven separate ArcGIS story maps. MnDOT appointee Marnie Karnowski said MnDOT has staff capacity to take on the rebuild and aims to finish before Drive the Great River Road month if scheduling allows. "We decided that we should at least get the plan your trip rebuilt, that 1 to 1 rebuild," Karnowski said.

Peter McDonough of MnDOT cautioned the commission that the story maps require much more maintenance, and that some story-map links will deteriorate over time if not actively maintained. "The plan your trip is now going away in time. It's not gone yet, but it will be going away," McDonough said, arguing that the commission should watch usage before deciding how extensively to keep printed and online materials.

The commission asked staff to gather printer quotes and return pricing and distribution logistics to the membership. Next steps include finalizing quantity decisions based on printer estimates and partner requests, completing the Plan Your Trip rebuild timeline with MnDOT staff, and coordinating a refreshed site launch that would pair new mapping tools with updated homepage tiles or partner links.