Two members of the New Ulm Park and Recreation Commission will be stepping down at the end of the year. Robert Skillings and Christopher Vorwerk have served their terms, and since the commission has decided it doesn’t really need nine members, it is downsizing. Skillings and Vorwerk won’t be replaced.

Seven members may be all the commission really needs, but it will miss the service and leadership these two commissioners have provided over the last few years, as the City of New Ulm planned and put into effect the RENU projects which have revamped the city’s recreational facilities.

Skillings, especially, has provided outstanding leadership on the recreation front. Twenty-some years ago he worked hard to sell the idea of a half-percent city sales tax, which brought about the building of the New Ulm Civic Center, the repurposing of Vogel Arena and the expansion of the New Ulm Community Center. The success of that program was so great is was an easy sell to continue the half percent sales tax, which is now financing the RENU projects, which include a new aquatic center, a gymnastics building and updated fitness areas at the recreation center, and the remodeling of Johnson Park, making the historic and venerable baseball park more comfortable and entertaining for the spectators.

We thank these two gentlemen for their service to New Ulm.