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Hastings voters will decide renovations for Duncan Field
Next week Hastings voters will decide whether or not to allow a half cent sales tax that would bring in an estimated $10.5 million over the next 7 years.
60% of the money would be used to repair roads in town, 25% would go to making renovations at Duncan Field and 15 % for renovations at the Hastings Public Library. Over the next few days we'll take a closer look at all 3 projects. A steering committee appointed by the Hastings Chamber of Commerce has spent about the last 8 months doing research and surveys trying to figure out what projects Hastings residents would like to see done. Renovating Duncan Field is one of those projects that they've seen with a lot of support and the proposed sales tax would bring in $2.5 million for renovations there. Let's take a look at what those renovations would include. A virtual tour lays out the plans for a $2.5 million project: new concession stands and press box, updated rest room facilities, and a completely new awning to cover sun struck baseball fans. Duncan Field was built in 1940 and hasn't had any major renovations for the last 40 years. Matt Bruns grew up here in Hastings playing baseball on Duncan Field. He said updating Duncan field is a good use of sales tax dollars. "I think it's awesome. It's a historical land mark in town. People come here just for that so the better it looks the better we look as a town, so I'm all for that," said Bruns. Local Tom Jurgensmeier agrees. "It's getting kind of run down quite frankly and it needs some rejuvenation, get a little new look to it cause there's a lot of use for that field so I'd like to see it look a little better," said Jurgensmeier. Currently Hastings sales tax is half a percent less than any other community in the state with a population of 10,000 people or larger. "So we're currently the only community not taking full advantage of what is statutorily allowed by collecting the full one and a half cent," said City Administrator Joe Patterson. If voted on a small portion of the 25 percent allotted to Duncan Field would be allocated for other park improvements in Hastings. And the field would rely on other sources such as a Kellogg grant for replacing the back stop, a ten thousand dollar donation from Pepsi and other donations to finish the renovations. But Hastings voters have the last word and will decided to put this plan into motion or not by heading to the voting polls next week. Now again, 25 percent of the proposed sales tax would go to renovations here at Duncan Field, 60 percent to Hastings roads and 15 percent to the Hastings Public Library. We're going to have the details of these projects coming up later this week so be sure to tune in to News 5. |
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