Your Town Tuesday: Gilman Mayor Talks New Website, Ball Park [VIDEO]

GILMAN - This week in our "Your Town Tuesday" series we are featuring the town of Gilman.

Gilman is a town of about 225 people just a few miles north of Foley on Highway 25.

Kip Averill has been the mayor for eight years now, and was a member of the city council two years before that.

He says the non-profit Park and Rec Department, and their work with the towns softball complex, are very important to the community. He says, "We bring in ball players, and teams, and leagues from all over the central Minnesota area. And, on Gilman Days, we have a well known three-day tournament that brings teams from the five state area".

Averill says you can find leagues playing at the field several nights a week throughout the summer.

Averill says several years ago the state urged communities to get out of the municipal liquor store business. However, Gilman kept theirs going, and Averill says it's been successful. He says, "We haven't been in the red since I've been mayor but one time, and that was the first year I became mayor. So, as long as the business is run as a business, and you have the right people in place, they can be huge assets to cities".

Averill says the money generated from the liquor store helps the city's budget. He says, "When I became mayor we were the 3rd lowest taxed city in Minnesota, and today we're between 10th and 14th."

Averill says they've only raised taxes three times in the past eight years.

Gilman has seven businesses in town.

One of the newest things, the community just had their first website go live last week - the web address is cityofgilman.org.

Gilman Days are coming up next weekend, July 25th through July 26th.

Coming-up next week in our "Your Town Tuesday" series we'll be featuring the town of Royalton.