At the June 26 Hastings City Council meeting, Community Development Director Dan Wietecha reviewed the request to accept the proposal from HKGI to provide project management services for the Lake Rebecca Park Redevelopment Project. HKGI submitted a proposal meeting the needs of the city and was used previously for the People Movement Plan. The company was most cost effective, coming in at $89,500, out-bidding three other firms who responded.

Last year, the city received $1million in grant funding from the Legislative Citizen Commission (LCC) for a redevelopment project at Lake Rebecca Park. Improvements to the park will focus on habitat restoration, enhancement and expansion, as well as developing parking lots, a boat launch, and trails.

Wietecha said although the grant can be used to improve infrastructure, “The emphasis is coming from the state's natural resources fund and emphasis on passive recreation. We’re not putting in zip lines or playgrounds or anything like that. We put out a request for proposals for a project manager who will help in the next couple of months putting out the next request for proposals for somebody to handle the master planning for the park improvements, work with the Community Survey, focus groups, get input on how best we can utilize the park, what improvements are appropriate within the scope of habitat and passive recreation.”

The project manager will also handle the oversight of bids and construction.

“To put in those improvements and being some fairly arcane state grant dollars, making sure we handle all the reporting requirements appropriately,” Wietecha said.

Council member Tina Folch questioned the effect of climate change as it might pertain to the future flooding of the park and whether the money spent will be washed away in a few decades.

“I personally have been really concerned as we're moving forward with the Lake Rebecca project and what it is we're going to do down there, the impact of global climate change and what the predictions are, you know, regarding what we're going to see with precipitation levels,” Folch stated. “I have an emergency management certification and I've gone to FEMA training. They had said that what has been the 500-year flood will become the 100-year flood and what has been the 100-year flood will become the 10-year flood in the next decades to come.”

Folch did not ask for an amendment at this time, but encouraged staff involved in the planning process, keeping in mind the potential of environmental changes. Concerns were noted and the proposal approved.