Brainerd Community Action Pursuing Downtown Beautification Projects

Brainerd Community Action has a couple project proposals geared towards sprucing up downtown.

The first is a “hometown heroes” project intended to hang banners of veterans and active service members from light poles, while the second idea involves decorating electrical boxes in an effort to liven up the area.

Dave Badeaux, Brainerd Community Action’s executive director and the city’s mayor, presented the plans to fellow council members last week. The “hometown heroes” project would require working alongside the Brainerd Public Utilities Commission, while electrical boxes would be completed with the help of a few local artists. Excluding BPU staff time, neither project would cost a city a dime.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to both showcase where we are and what we’ve done, but also at the same time, give ourselves a little bit of something extra,” Badeaux stated. “One of the things we really want to focus on as an organization is, what can we can do to give back in little ways within the community to try and spruce some things up? And this is just a perfect opportunity to do something like that.”

BPU members gave Badeaux the OK for the “hometown heroes” project during its meeting earlier this week. The banners are expected to go live next spring, while behind-the-scenes work on the electrical boxes is already underway.