Braham mayor Nate George discussed the future of the city’s Freedom Park pavilion in a recent update.
George explained that upcoming projects being considered in Braham, including the proposed Northern Lights Express rail line and Highway 107 work, will encroach on Freedom Park.
"We've come across another potential issue for the city that we want to be proactive about, and that is the simple fact that Freedom Park, besides being an increasingly poor location for a park, given the modernization of things like cars and trains and stuff on both sides, is most likely not going to exist in a matter of years," George explained in the video update. "It could be ten, twenty-plus years from now, but it's not going to exist eventually."
The pavilion overlaps with the right-of-way for both the railroad and state highway, and George said the city is proactively looking at ways to preserve the pavilion by moving it.
"If we want to preserve it, it has to be moved," George explained. "Not moving it means it goes away eventually."
The city of Braham is exploring the viability of moving the structure.
"Would it sustain too much damage? We don't know, we'd have to look into that," George said. "And maybe that might be a thing where it can't be moved, and that to me would be very sad. And it should be very sad to every single one of you, because that would mean eventually it would have to come down."
One option being explored is putting the pavilion in Pleasantview Park, which the city owns. Braham is in the early stages of working on achieving a regional designation for the park.
"It would literally put Braham on the map," George said.
Having something unique is part of the requirement for the designation, and George said the pavilion, as a historical landmark, would help fit the bill.
"It would really add to the park," George said. "It would be in a beautiful space."
The city is celebrating the pavilion’s centennial in 2025.
