City to purchase new equipment to replace aging playground at park
Just two months after the grand opening of the new playground at Central Park, the City of Tracy, along with the Parks Committee, is moving forward on improving another park in Tracy. The City received a $30,000 Taylor Family Farms Foundation grant along with special discounts to purchase a Juniper Play Structure playground that will be installed at Sebastian Park.
Originally, the plan was to fix the larger play structure at Sebastian Park. However, the cost would be significant to repair all that is needed, including slides, and the ongoing maintenance would be high as well.
The City is able to get the new play structure, valued at $69,163, at 50% off due to an end-of the-season discount. In addition, the City is receiving a CRS discount of $8,300 for pieces that were missing from the play structure at Central Park when it was originally shipped that they had to wait for, as well as the required on site installation supervisor cost of one day. This allows the new play structure to be purchased, with freight, for $31,857.44. The grant will cover most of the cost with the remaining coming from the Parks budget.
The City was also awarded a $600,000 grant on Oct. 8 from SCDP from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This grant can be used for anything water-related such as water tower improvements, water mains, wells, water treatment plant improvements, etc. The City will meet to see how to best use the grant within the specifications of it.
The council also moved forward in purchasing four tax forfeited properties within Tracy. The tax forfeited properties will go on auction on Nov. 1, 2025. The council approved the purchase of parcel #31-140015-1, no address given, for an amount up to $300; parcel #31100067-0, 224 South St, for an amount up to $7,000; parcel #31-122010-0, 200 Union St., for an amount up to $2,000 and parcel #31-1020340, 424 Rowland St., for an amount up to $2,000.
The council also heard an update from Bollig Engineering Inc. on several projects, including the airport which has reached substantial completion. They also received an update on the SCADA project, and are currently finalizing the electrical and process design. Bollig is working with AE25 to put together an agreement that allows them to do the project programming once it is installed.
Bollig also discussed the Phase E project and lead service line inventory. Currently, there are only 64 customer unknowns left and Bollig will be in town this week trying to contact those property owners to finish that part. The customer lead service line is from the curb stop to the house. There are also 537 unknowns on the system side, which includes from the watermain to the curb stop. These are harder to inventory depending on how long ago they were installed and what records were required at that time. The inventory must be to Minnesota Department of Health by Oct. 27.
On the Phase E project, Bollig asked the council to consider if they wanted to install sidewalks at three locations. The first would be to add a sidewalk along the south side of Union St. between Center St. and 1st St. There is sidewalk up to the intersection of 1st St. but it doesn’t continue for the block to Center St.
The second location would be on the east side of 1st St. just south of Hollett St. East. The sidewalk would provide better access to the park. The final location proposed would be to extend the sidewalk on the south side of Union St. to the east side of 2nd St. This would allow for future expansion of the sidewalk toward the hospital. The council would look into these options as the decision didn’t need to be made right away.
They also discussed the street width on North St. North St. currently has two different widths (28’ on the west side of 1st St. E and 32’ on the east side of 1st St. E). Most of the streets in Phase E are being proposed at 30’ to match existing conditions. The council will look into the standard that was set on the last project and make a decision before bids would have to go out on the project.
In other council news:
• Jared Hively was appointed to the Parks Board.
• The board heard from Jeff Gladis with United Community Action Partnership on the Small Cities Development Program. The program has completed or an in the process of completing work on 20 homes in Tracy with one home waiting on a bid. They have used $485,000 of the $500,000 grant on those 20 homes. On the commercial side, there are two projects competed, two projects out for bid and six projects still being worked on. They have used $273,000 of the $480,000 grant. There is room for more commercial projects, but the grant closes next September with work needing to be completed, so any interested commercial properties would need to apply now.
* The Council heard from Jared Welch with Southern Minnesota Tree Armor as to the Emerald Ash Borer problem in Minnesota and treatment options that are available.
