City signs agreements with sports teams; Central Ave., work to begin again

By Becky Uehling

Grant Tribune-Sentinel

The Grant City Council had a short meeting Monday, April 24, with discussion held on license and management agreements for the Park and Rec Program, updates by City Superintendent Edward Dunn concerning construction projects in the community, approval of an ordinance allowing Dunn to serve as deputy clerk/treasurer in the absence of City Clerk/Treasurer Jessie Faber, among other items.

License and Management Agreement

The City Council unanimously agreed to enter into License and Management Agreements with two sports teams seeking to utilize the city’s recreation utilities this summer. The teams, Oakley Traveling Baseball Team and the Perkins County Swim Team, have also given their approval to the agreements, Dunn said.

The agreements are similar  to the city’s agreement that was drawn up in late 2022 early 2023 with what was planned to be the Legion Baseball Team in Grant. However, the formation of that team fell through because it fell short of securing the needed number of players to form a team.  

The License and Management Agreements cover expectations between the city and the sports team. These include the following: responsibilities of each entity pertaining to the upkeep and preparation of the ball fields/pool; scheduling of games, meets and practices; required supervision of teams’ events; insurance requirements; among other details.

This is the first time that the city has entered into the agreements with the two groups.  

Construction Project          Updates

Dunn gave the council an update on the work being done on the city’s wastewater lift station located on the north side of the City Park. Because of the work, east 8th and 9th Streets, between Central and Hancock Avenues, were closed off to traffic for the past week and will continue to be closed until the end of the month. According to the City’s Engineer Tom Werblow, the group completing the work, Midlands Contracting from Kearney, are placing new pumps in the lift station. They are also installing a by-pass so that the lift station itself could be bypassed if it malfunctioned.

The work is scheduled to be completed by the end of April, Dunn said.

Central Work

Dunn also told the council that with the warmer weather the downtown Central Ave. update project will start again soon. Ending at the corner of 5th and Central at the start of winter last year, Level, LLC ,will start up again at Hastings Memorial Library and continue to the west side of Central and head south to 1st Street.  

Parking will be changed in front of the library from parallel to angle, along with the curb being engineered to better accommodated drainage before the crew moves to the work down west Central.

“We are excited to get that (the Central Ave. project) back under construction,” Dunn said.

Dunn said there is also some final “cleanup” jobs that will need to be done for the water main project completed on the west side of town last year.

Code Amendment

The council conducted the third reading for a proposed amendment to the City’s Municipal code, which would allow the City Administrator to act as Deputy Clerk/Treasurer for the city in the absence of the Clerk/Treasurer due to illness or otherwise. After the reading, the council voted unanimously to approve the amendment.

Next Meeting

The next council meeting for the City of Grant will be Monday, May 8 at 7 p.m. The meetings are also live streamed. For more information, log on to the City of Grant’s website.