Some additional property owners in Blue Earth will be assessed for a street and utility project after action taken at last Monday’s city council meeting.

With the Eighth and Moore Street Project nearing halfway in completion, the council authorized getting bids on a new Tenth and Moore Street project.

City Engineer Bill Sayre’s preliminary report showed the estimated cost of the three block extension to be $729,000.

Of that amount, $149,700 will be assessed, while the rest will be paid by whole city through current property taxes and utility fees.

Affected will be property owners on Moore Street between Tenth and Twelfth Streets, and Tenth Street from Moore to Main streets.

Sayre said it will take until August to get the bidding procedure completed and by that time the contractor working in the area will be done and pulled out.

“That is too bad,” Sayre said. “We have been very happy with his work on this first project. I would hope they might bid on this next project.”

The vote to proceed with the call for bids did not come without some controversy. Councilman Dan Brod wondered why they couldn’t assess the hospital for most of the work as their new clinic project was the reason it was necessary.

City Administrator Kathy Bailey pointed out that water pressure in the area has been poor, and this will fix that problem. The same is true of storm sewer drainage, she said.

“It is not just because of the clinic project,” she said. Bailey added that United Hospital District owns six of the affected lots, so they will be assessed for some of the work.

Brod voted no on the motion to move forward on the project. He and councilman Les Wiborg voted no on another motion setting a hearing date for the assessments for July 6 at 5:05 p.m.

For more of this story, see this week’s Register.