Additional netting to cost in excess of $100,000

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

A new protective fence at Lund Park could come at a fairly steep price. 

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the New York Mills City Council heard an update concerning the park board from councilman Eric Hammond who stated that a recent quote for protective fencing that would go in-between the two softball fields was estimated to cost in excess of $100,000. The city council and park board have discussed the need for additional netting to protect fans who sit in-between the two fields as the number of softball and youth games in NY Mills has ballooned in rent years. 

However, Hammond said the park board was surprised to learn how much the fencing would cost and the board will need to look at how to fund additional netting for the softball fields and cautioned that raising additional funds to take on such an expensive project could be difficult at this time.

The council and park board will continue to explore options to improve safety for fans at Lund Park moving forward. 

In other news

• Heard the monthly liquor store report that showed the combined gross sales for the month were up 15 percent from the prior year and the combined cost of goods were up one percent as a percentage of sales from last year. The net revenues year to date before transfers is up 80.62 percent from last year at a loss of $2,116.31. The off-sale has shown a loss of $7,391.71 before transfers and the on-sale net before transfers is a positive $5,275.40. 

• Heard the monthly call report from the NY Mills Fire Department that showed 41 calls for the month, which included 31 medical calls, seven fire calls, one MVA, one mutual aid for the Bluffton Fire Department and one missing person report. The department is on pace for a record number of calls this year with 88 calls through the end of March, as opposed to 54 calls at the same point last year. 

• Heard the monthly call report from the NY Mills Police Department that showed 234 calls for service and seven citations for the month of March. The council also reviewed two quotes for a new squad truck after it did not purchase a new squad truck last year. The council received a quote for a 2026 Ford F150 at a cost of $47,045 and a quote of 2026 Chevrolet Silverado at a cost of $47,800. The council directed NY Mills Police Chief Bobby Berndt to review the quotes with the police committee to decide which of the two quotes to move forward with for the police department. 

• Heard from Brian Horn regarding his property at 204 Nowell St. who faced an assessment of $8,489.79 for a piece of tax forfeited property in NY Mills. Horn said the amount of the assessments are more than the total value of the property itself and asked the council to not recertify the assessment. He said his goal is to fix up the tax forfeited house and fix it up for affordable housing. NY Mills Clerk Julie Roberts said the city has granted similar requests by both reassessing a portion or none of the assessments in the past to get the property back on the tax roll. The council approved the request to not certify the assessments that date back to 2006. 

• Accepted the following donations: $10,000 from West Central Initiative for a housing study and strategic framework and $100 from an anonymous donor to benefit the DARE program.