New Playground, water inspection, street repairs considered by Beatrice City Council

BEATRICE – Beatrice elected officials have selected a company to build a playground at the former Stoddard Elementary School site, where a senior housing project is underway.

Play-Pro Recreation will install the new playground for just under $200,000. The company has built other upgraded playgrounds in the city, including recent completion of the Sertoma Astro Park site and new playgrounds at Chautauqua and Froberry Parks.

Beatrice City officials also approved an agreement for inspection of the city’s two underground water reservoirs that serve the community. The storage facilities are located at Fourth and Grant Streets.

Together, the underground reservoirs have about 8 million gallons of capacity. The city also has two water towers, located in the northeast and south areas of the community.

Bids totaling some $62,000 were approved by the council for street armor coating and asphalt sealing work in 2026. Also approved was an agreement to retain A-H-R-S Construction for a new T-Hangar, upgraded taxi-lanes and a hangar approach at the Beatrice Municipal Airport.

One mayoral appointment was approved by the city council…naming Grant Jones as a member of the Beatrice Board of Public Works.

Elected officials also grant a special liquor permit for an area of the West Scott Ballfield for the Solstice Gravel Grinder Cycling race next June 20th….part of the annual Homestead Days celebration.

Some concrete repairs next to the Beatrice Public Schools Elementary and Preschool are set to start Tuesday.

City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer says the work is covered by warranty on the new concrete area installed this past year.

"When they poured the concrete out there....there is a defect on the center turn lane about every couple panels. They are going to come in as part of the warranty work and take care of those. They're not supposed to start before nine o'clock and are supposed to be done by two o'clock, to have the least amount of impact on the school, as possible."

Tempelmeyer says one area to be repaired near the entrance to the preschool will be done Thursday and Friday, to minimize any disruption to school traffic.

There’s no additional cost to the city, for the repairs.

Meanwhile, Tempelmeyer said residents may notice some tree inspection work going on in the near future. Officials will be doing a tree inventory project on public right of way in areas east of U.S. Highway 77.

"Starting in January...and we'll let the public know....you might see people out wandering in your yard, looking at your trees, measuring them, taking some pictures of them, GPS-locating them....it's all part of the tree inventory of what's on our right-of-way. Like we did last time, it gives us a list of the types and species...what needs to be done, like pruning or removal. It's a very helpful document."

The City of Beatrice has received grant support for a tree inventory and local forestry management.

On the subject of the new landfill opening southwest of the city, Tempelmeyer noted that only one contract change order came in, on the initial cell construction of over $6 million….and that was a decrease in cost of about $53,000.