Lehighton continues to move forward with improvements to a heavily utilized recreational park.

On a 5-1 vote, borough council last week approved the Department of Conservation and Natural Resource’s grant contract for rehabilitation and further development of Baer Memorial Park.Councilman Joe Flickinger was opposed. Councilman Darryl Arner was absent.Council’s action comes one month after it approved on a 6-1 vote, with Flickinger opposed, a proposal for park improvements for design, permitting and construction from Barry Isett & Associates Inc.As part of the improvements, the baseball diamond at Baer Memorial will be removed, while basketball courts and bleachers will be installed nearby, borough secretary Brenda Koons said.Additionally, Koons said a multipurpose field and walking trail will be constructed within the park.There will be handicap accessibility and parking, she said.Koons said the total cost of the project is $400,000. The borough was awarded a $200,000 grant from DCNR as part of the Community Conservation Partnership Program.In June, council on a 6-1 vote, with Flickinger opposed, agreed to submit a Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program grant of $244,826 from the Commonwealth Financing Authority to be used for improvements to the park.Flickinger said at that time that while he strongly believes “that recreational activities are a vital necessity of any great community,” he “must look beyond just one or two recreational venues within our community.”“Instead of moving some opportunities from one to another, I believe we should concentrate on some of our parks such as Skyline and Sixth and Coal locations for the residents of those areas of the community that we also serve,” he said. “Some of those locations haven’t seen any improvements in decades.”Koons said a separate grant of $40,000 was awarded to the borough from DCNR as a Community Conservation Partnership Program.The borough will use that to have a study done on how to improve the community grove, and to see if an additional recreation center would be built in the lower field near the existing recreation center, Koons said.However, council took no action Monday concerning DCNR’s grant for the preparation of a master site development plan and recreation center feasibility study of the grove.In March 2016, council on a 6-1 vote, with Flickinger opposed, agreed to begin the procedure for a feasibility/engineering study to build a new gym at the grove.Currently the Lehighton Recreation Community Center serves borough youth.The new gym would either be in addition to the recreation center, or located either below the existing building, or added on to the existing building.