By Rich Palzewic
Staff Writer
BELLEVUE – At its July 22 meeting, the Bellevue village board unanimously approved funds to replace the oldest portion of the playground at Josten Park.
In early June, a survey was available for community members to rank the nine playground designs to identify the most popular.
At the closing of the survey, 124 completed responses were recorded.
The board approved the bid from Minnesota-Wisconsin Playgrounds, totaling $50,000.
“It will be a great thing for the park and village,” said Steve Soukup, village president. “We had some calls for requests of the old equipment we are taking out, but due to liability and safety reasons, we don’t want to make that available to community members. The equipment isn’t up to code anymore.”
In other news, the board denied a request submitted on behalf of the Laura & Peter Mossakowski Family Dog Park to utilize park impact fees and revenue generated through park user fees to fund the purchase and installation of an additional shade structure at the dog park.
The group requested $16,000 for the project.
“The shade structure would be metal-framed and have a steel roof,” said Adam Waszak, director of parks, recreation and forestry. “It would be more permanent with a concrete foundation. It’s the busiest park in the village and heavily used.”
Representatives of the dog park said the shade structure is the top request from the dog park community.
This past spring, dog park officials said they intended to raise the money for the shade structure through an annual fundraiser.
“It’s my understanding, the fundraiser would have brought in enough money to cover the cost without financial assistance from the village, however, due to COVID-19, the event was canceled,” Soukup said.
Because this was not a budgeted item, several board members discussed concern about approving the request.
“I’d be fine soliciting bids for the project, but I wouldn’t want the price to be more than the $16,000 requested,” said Soukup.
Laura Mossakowski asked the board if the dog park committee could offset the cost for the structure if bids came in higher than $16,000.
Soukup said he was fine with that, but in the end, the motion failed, 3-2.