By Lee Reinsch
Correspondent

DE PERE – Profits from beer garden events in De Pere’s future beer gardens will help fund fun for kids.

With one nay vote, the De Pere Common Council voted Tuesday, March 19, to put proceeds from the beer garden events into a special parks fund set aside for park improvements and park infrastructure.

That includes things pretty much anything.

“Infrastructure is basically all of our assets in the park – restroom buildings, open shelters, playgrounds, ball diamonds, soccer fields, walking trails, fishing piers, volleyball courts, pools, lighting, etc.,” said Marty Kosobucki, director of Parks, Recreation, and Forestry.

Casting the nay vote was Alderman Dan Carpenter, who has been consistent at meetings in voicing concern over the city sponsoring an event based upon or closely tied to alcohol.

In previous meetings, Alderman Dean Raasch pointed out the positive twist to the idea of a beer garden’s proceeds going toward benefiting children.

Along with the creation of a park fund from beer garden profits, the Common Council also approved funding to pay three people (a manager and two servers) to staff the beer garden events for six hours per evening.

With three beer garden nights this summer, this season will serve as a pilot for the beer garden concept, which was originally brought forward by District 4 Alderman Casey Nelson last September.

The beer garden nights will be the last Tuesday of the months of July, August, and September, from 4 to 9 p.m. at Voyageur Park, with music playing from 5 to 8 p.m.

The city will contract out with food trucks to serve snacks.

Kosobucki estimates each beer garden event would cost just under $1,500 and, at minimum, bring in just under $1,600.

It’s hoped the business community will step forward with sponsorships to cover activities and music acts, which would mean proceeds toward the parks fund would be higher.

In other common council news:

The council also gave the OK for $1,450 for asbestos testing at the VFW Park, with up to $20,000 for asbestos removal if asbestos is found.

NorthStar Environmental Testing of Appleton will do the testing and potential removal.

NorthStar has done asbestos testing and removal work for Green Bay Packaging, Miron Construction (Lambeau Field), Tecumseh factory in New Holstein, Kwik Trip stores around the state, and, most recently, the Brown County Arena.

Testing and removal of asbestos needs to be done before the VFW pool and structure can be demolished this summer.

The council also agreed to spend an additional $19,000 for asphalt surfacing at the VFW Park playground, bringing the total for upgrading the playground to $129,218.

That amount includes new playground equipment, paved sidewalks, and costs for any landscaping.

The Board of Park Commissioners had considered using soft-fill materials, such as wood chips or shredded rubber, but factors such as the short lifespan of wood chips and the scattering of materials (and subsequent necessary raking and labor required) made the soft-fill impractical.