By Jolene FarleyThe Hills city council voted at a Wednesday, April 14, meeting to build a new basketball court at the city park."We lost the one we did have back at the school," Mayor Jim Jellema said.The basketball court at the high school was removed to make way for the construction of the locker rooms.Jellema asked Hills-Beaver Creek activities director Steve Wiertzema to check on what size the court should be and the type of backboards to use.His wife, city clerk Connie Wiertzema, brought the information to the meeting. The plan is to pour a 50-by-50 foot cement court behind the center field fence at the ball diamond. The council wants to add wooden posts around the perimeter of the court to make sure that no one drives on it."Get a price, get it going, get it done," Jellema said.In other council business:oThe Council decided to invest $3,000 in equipment to spray for mosquitoes. The sprayer would cover 15 miles of streets and alleys in an application. "I think there’s two other communities that would be willing to come down and have us do theirs," Jellema said."All three communities have parks and ball diamonds and I don’t think this West Nile thing is going to go away or get any better," he said.oThe council decided to purchase a sound system for the Hills Legion Hall.A group of citizens asked councilman and auctioneer Keith Elbers if they could borrow his sound system for the Memorial Day program. The current sound system didn’t work well at last year’s program and many in the audience couldn’t hear the speaker. Elbers told the council an adequate system could be purchased for between $300 and $500. He agreed to look for a sound system, and the council put a cap of $500 on the purchase.oThe council increased the amount of the city’s contribution to the fire department’s relief fund from $5,000 to $5,135. "The auditor’s coming back and saying, according to their figures, it should be $5,135 total," city clerk Connie Wiertzema said.oCity employee Wayne Ward asked the council if he could purchase a dog kennel to house the stray dogs he picks up. The dogs are tearing up the shed they are currently housed in, according to Ward.
