City panel questions county's intent for Highland area

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Brown County's plans to reroute County State Aid Highway 27 in the North Highland area has New Ulm's Park and Recreation Commission as nervous as the proverbial cat in a room full of rockers.

While at least one commission member has been told that the county is, as yet, only exploring options, the surveyor stakes marking a proposed route through the heart of Highland Park make it appear to be more than just an "option" to Director Dave Bechtold and the commission.

Mayor Joel Albrecht, who attended the commission's meeting Monday, went so far as to label even considering that route as an option "the dumbest idea I've ever heard. Why go through a residential area and a city park when there is an open field one and a half blocks away?"

"Running the highway through the park as it has been staked out will make Highland unuseable as a park," Bechtold told the commission. "Kids would have to cross the highway to get from the playground to the rest of the park."

Commissioner Clark Tuttle, who is the city council's representative on the commission, said he doesn't have a clue as to what the county has in mind because "the city council has not been approached on this matter."

The highway currently follows North Highland Avenue out of the city.

The commission, in other action, voted unanimously to suggest Arts and Activities Center as the new name for the Senior Center that is being remodeled to hold a performing arts theater which will double as the center's dining hall.

The other major sales tax referendum project will continue to be referred to as the Fairgrounds Community Center. The Family Recreation Center at Vogel Arena also will not be renamed, Bechtold said.

Commissioners also gave the New Ulm Hockey Association its blessing to install and operate a permanent skate sharpening machine at the new community center; the association will pay a 5 percent fee on gross sales like the other concessions at the center.

The department's youth scholarship program was changed by the commission to provide $20 per child and $50 per family for those qualifying for reduced lunches at local schools and $40 and $100 for those qualifying for free lunches.

In other action, the commission re-elected Mary Ann Hussman as president for 2003, and Dan Schneider will continue as vice president.