Four Beatrice Plus Program Grants Approved by City Council

BEATRICE – Beatrice elected officials have approved several grant awards from the Beatrice Plus program, including $6,000 to help acquire and construct river access ramps along the Big Blue, in Beatrice.

Main Street Beatrice Executive Director Michael Sothan is among those who have urged development of river access for canoeing or kayaking.
"From Main Street's perspective, the potential economic opportunities it creates for Beatrice plus the increased community amenities, the quality of life-type improvements, certainly speak well for these types of projects. The hope is as the future goes along, that we continue to try to develop a river access trail".

The City of Beatrice has committed funding to establish at least one river access point south of the West Court Street bridge. A former Mayor, Allen Grell told the mayor and city council the potential is there to capitalize on river recreation.
"You have Omaha with a half-million people, Lincoln with a quarter million...it is not uncommon for a kayaker to drive a hundred and fifty miles to participate in this sport".

Rachelle Bauman, the Beatrice YMCA Health and Wellness Director, said a recent YMCA fundraiser invited people to kayak on the Big Blue and the event drew a lot of social media interest and participation.
"We had about a hundred and twenty kayakers come to Beatrice, who lived within the town and outside of our town. Thirty percent were from out of town....22-percent from Lincoln...and the last eight percent were from Omaha, Marysville, Kansas and Grand Island."

About 30% of the participants were between the ages of 21 and 34. Bauman says having access to the river would meet the needs of a lot of age groups, and she encouraged the city to look at several access points between Beatrice and Holmesville on the river, allowing for shorter routes.

The city council also approved a Beatrice Plus allocation of $5,000 to help resurface Chautauqua Park tennis Courts, into Pickleball Courts. The sport is one of the fastest growing in popularity, in the U.S. City Administrator Tobias Tempelmeyer said it is a cross between tennis and badminton.
"Very similar to tennis, but a much smaller court. It's very popular among people throughout the world. It's growing in popularity. Lincoln has added some courts. They have used the tennis courts at Chautauqua Park for the last, probably five years, for Pickleball....went out and repainted them. Now they wish to make them into official Pickleball Courts".

The Chautauqua Park Courts would have room for three 20-by-44 courts for Pickleball, played with a plastic ball and paddles, somewhat smaller than a tennis racquet.

Elected officials also approved a Beatrice Plus grant of just over 13-hundred dollars, toward an exterior project at the Gage County Historical Museum, and $5,000 to replace an outfield fence and backstop, at one of the Hannibal Park ball fields.
The Beatrice Plus program is funded by voluntary contributions utility ratepayers make when they pay their monthly bill. Grant requests are evaluated by a citizen committee, which then makes recommendations to the mayor and city council.

The City of Beatrice is continuing to weather the coronavirus pandemic with a good financial report.
The city recently received figures for sales tax revenue for the month of May.

The $302,000 received for the general fund and street fund, along with about $100,000 for the new fire station, represented a more than three percent increase over May of last year.  Local sales tax has brought in more than $3 million during this fiscal year, compared with the budgeted figure of about $2.8 million.
The half-cent local sales tax approved by voters to finance the fire station, raised more than $1.15 million during the first year of the tax.