City

seeks

grant for

library

project

Funds would help pay for

accessibility

and renovation

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The City of New Ulm will seek a $150,000 public library accessibility grant to help fund a $628,900 renovation of parts of both public-library buildings as a result of City Council action Tuesday.

Councilors also approved in general terms placing a 100-by 45-foot steel building that will house two batting cages and storage in North Park. The New Ulm Junior Baseball Association will pay for the building and turn it over to the city.

The library project centers around installing between the 1973 building and the 1935 building a handicap-accessible elevator that would serve five different levels, City Manager Brian Gramentz told councilors.

Councilors authorized staff to apply for the state grant that is available to communities having libraries with accessibility problems.

But those weren't the only buildings councilors had on their minds.

Members of the New Ulm Junior Baseball Association told the council the building planned for North Park would be similar in design and color to the hog/storage building on the Brown County fairgrounds.

Although they received the council's support, they also had to accept some uninvited critiquing of their choice in buildings.

"I think it's ugly," Councilor Clark Tuttle said, "but I realize that you can't afford to build anything else. And we sure can't."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Clark," counseled Councilor Ruth Ann Webster.

"I agree with you, Councilor Tuttle," responded Mayor Joel Albrecht, "and I own one. It houses Concordia Lanes."

Council President Dan Beranek opined that it would be nice if the building wasn't made of steel.

"We don't have a steel building in any other park, but I drove around (North Park) this afternoon. That's all there is out around the park except on the west side where there are houses."

In the end, councilors decided that steel was the only way to go for the association because, as Pat Davis, representing the association, noted, "We can get into it for just under $75,000. Other types of buildings would be three times that cost."

The council did ask, however, that the association provide some samples of ways of dressing up the building so it didn't look so much like a steel building.

The council also authorized the city manager and finance director to sign an agreement with the State of Minnesota to enable Beacon Promotions to get a $150,000 Minnesota Investment Fund appropriation.

The grant will help the new firm expand its operations and add additional employees.

In other action, the council:

* Approved a request from the Street Department to buy 210 blue, red and white "Snow Emergency Route" signs for the downtown area. The signs will replace the more labor-intensive barricades used in the past.

* Ratified the Park and Recreation Commission's recommendation that Vogel Fieldhouse not be used for dry-floor shows. Park and Rec Director Dave Bechtold told the council the fieldhouse "is all booked up" with sports activities, anyway.

* Approved Change Order No. 15 which added $5,152 to the Civic Center's construction cost for connecting 90 feet of 4-inch PVC pipe between an existing sanitary sewer and a cooling tower for draining treated water.

* Accepted a $2,000 grant from the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council to continue conservation treatment of 15 of the city's Wanda Gag Collection works of art.