During last Tuesday’s Becker City Council meeting, the council spent most of their agenda discussing park maintenance and improvements, especially at Community Park and the Becker Community Center (BCC).

Community Park is the new park adjacent to the BCC. It currently features a splash pad and pickleball courts. At the meeting, the city council approved adding play equipment on “pour in place” rubber play material (which is ADA accessible for children and families with disabilities), and a new pavilion which will feature restrooms and possibly a concession stand. Both of these features should be implemented sometime around September, once park demand diminishes as students return to school. The play equipment would be paid using ARPA funding, and the pavilion will use capital improvement funding. 

The BCC itself will also be receiving some TLC. The gymnasium will be getting some much-needed new flooring, fresh paint, and new basketball hoops. The new hoops will be attached to the ceiling and will be able to be elevated when the gym is rented out for events or other activities. The ceiling will also be repainted, as it currently has significant peeling. Finally, mats will be added to the walls in case athletes don’t stop in time and run into the wall. The gym will be unavailable for about four weeks once renovations start. 

The Becker Area Senior Community area will also be getting revamped, with exterior signage for the group being added to the exterior of the building and adding a patio area. The improvements will be paid using ARPA funding. 

To wrap up the projects at the BCC, a new external security camera will be installed. The camera will monitor an outside generator. The generator is owned by Diamond Leaf and is leased to the BCC for their use. Diamond Leaf will be paying for the camera and the installation as a means of protecting their property. The bonus for the city is that the camera will also monitor the outdoor areas. Unfortunately, the servers available at the BCC will not be able to support a backup log for this camera for a 14 day period, as is the current practice for the other security cameras in the building. The servers were due to be replaced in the next two years, so staff is looking into the situation. They also said they would ask if Diamond Leaf would be willing to pay part of the costs to replace the servers. 

To wrap up parks improvements, the Becker Athletic Complex will be getting new lime on their fields, which will help drain rainwater and help with the “dustbowl” situation.

In Other Business, the Council:

• Approved rail spur maintenance work;

• Approved work on the Parkview storm station, which has had problems backing up and flooding into the street;

• Agreed to transition to using SmartGov software, which should make documents easier for staff and the public to access.