Home Page

Harder Park, Johnson Park
improvements set for this summer

By Barbara Brown
Two city parks will get face lifts this summer after the North Branch City Council approved some significant changes.
Harder Park, on the east side of the city, will get new playground equipment, improved paths and a paved parking lot.
Included in the parking lot paving part of the project would be an expansion of slots. City planner Al Cottingham said if the lot is striped for spaces, the number of available parking spots could reach about 140.
The improvements to Harder Park are estimated to cost $180,000. About $91,000 would come from the Harder Park fund and the balance would be from park dedication funds.
Park dedication money cannot be spent on any other area except parks.
The council also improved $300,000 in improvements to Roger Johnson Memorial Park.
Installation of a well and well house, in-ground sprinkler system, paths, an entrance driveway and paved parking lot would make it easier for people to use the planned three soccer fields and a baseball field that would be designed into the park.
Cottingham said the parks commission wanted to see the well and well house built this year and have the sprinklers installed.
The commission also wanted to have the fields graded and seeded this year.
The Roger Johnson Memorial Park fund has about $140,000 and the balance of the improvements would come from park dedication money.
Cottingham recognized that only about $90,000 would remain in the park dedication fund after the Harder Park improvements. He said the commission would stagger facets of the Roger Johnson project according the amount in the park dedication fund.
The fund is built up when developers and people who divide their own property pay into it to support additional people using the parks.
Also during the Feb. 25 meeting, the council:
ï Approved changes to the setbacks, lot sizes and lot uses definitions for residential districts 1, 2 and 3 where city sewer and water services are not available, and
ï Agreed to use just more than a half-mile of its allotted state designated roadway allowance to extend Hemingway Avenue from from CR14 to Hwy. 95. The city will receive $398,428 in state aid money from the Minnesota Department of Transportation for projects on state-aided routes that meet state guidelines.

Top of Page

©ECM Post Review

6448 Main Street
North Branch, MN 55056
Telephone: 651-674-7025
Fax: 651-674-7026
E-mail: editor.postreview@ecm-inc.com