City aldermen support Jackson man's dream to rehab courts

Josh Lukefahr had a vision to rehabilitate the basketball courts in Jackson City Park once he realized their dilapidated condition this spring — and his dream is about to be realized.

On Monday, Jackson's Board of Aldermen formally accepted Lukefahr's private donation valued at $8,240 to allow an upgrade to go forward.

The money was raised via a GoFundMe account and a July 3 3-on-3 hoops tournament fundraiser Lukefahr organized.

"Josh is buying the backboards and (basketball) rims and is giving those to the city," said Jackson's Parks and Recreation director Jason Lipe, who said the new equipment should go in this fall.

Lukefahr, who was born and reared in Jackson and still calls the county seat town home, will also pay for certain improvements to the courts — notably new seal coating on the asphalt and new striping.

"We're going to try the seal coating and see if that's a long-term fix," said Lipe, who added it's impressive what one citizen can do if motivated.

"(The city) can get something done a lot faster through a private donation than if the city had to fund it directly," added Lipe, who succeeded the retired Shane West Anderson as head of Jackson's parks department in January. "The courts were on our radar but this (donation) puts them right up to the front."

Lipe said some city projects in the past were also funded partly or entirely by private gifts — notably pickleball courts in Litz Park, Rotary Lake, Shelter No. 5 near the bandshell from the Optimists Club and newest Brookside Park baseball field.

"In the case of the basketball courts, you had an individual and what developed into a group of individuals, who were passionate and who put forth an effort to beautify a section of our City Park," Lipe said.

The 88-acre City Park, Jackson's oldest, was established in 1933.

Other aldermanic action

• $100,000 approved for Jackson's Strickland Engineering for engineering and architectural services for the city fire department building renovations project.
• $134,558.75 bid approved from SAK Construction of O'Fallon, Missouri, for this year's sanitary sewer lining program.
• $10,744.80 bid approved from Lite Designs and Guttering of Benton, Missouri, for the city's 2022 Holiday Extravaganza Lighting program. Aldermen also OK'd extending the agreement for two years with $11.013.42 earmarked for 2023 and $11,288.76 for 2024.
• A change order in the amount of $1,917.50 approved to Oak Ridge's Paving Pros LLC for the 2022 Asphalt Pavement Improvement Program.
• Special-use permit was tabled on a 7-1 vote for a towing business, Land Escapes LLC, to operate in a C-2 General Commercial District on 1.6 acres at 1383 S. Hope St., after four city residents spoke in opposition at a public hearing. The matter will be revisited at a future aldermanic meeting, according to Mayor Dwain Hahs.