This area of the Faribault County Fairgrounds will be paved later this summer as part of a new $71,665 project just added to the summer’s work by the City Council at their meeting this past Monday night.

The Blue Earth City Council decided to scrap one new project at least for now but also voted to proceed with another one that had not been on their radar.

The one they voted to postpone was a large maintenance building at the Blue Earth Municipal Airport.

The project they voted to proceed with involved doing some additional bituminous paving work at the Faribault County Fairgrounds much of which is owned by the city.

Ron Roetzel of Bolton and Menk Engineers was at the meeting to go over the plans for the new SRE (snow removal equipment) building at the airport.

The engineer’s estimate for the 46 feet by 54 feet building was $333,000.

However, Roetzel reported that only one bid was received, from United Builders of Blue Earth, and it was for $393,000 $60,000 over the estimate.

“You have several options,” Roetzel told the council. “You can accept the bid as is. You can reduce the size of the building and change some of the specifications in order to reduce the cost. Or you can reject the bid altogether and rebid it later.

The engineer said that reducing the size of the building down to 46 by 49 feet, and going to a steel roof instead of a shingled one, plus eliminating some storage areas, could get the cost down to $350,000, a reduction of $43,000.

Roetzel pointed out that most of the cost of the building is paid for by state and federal aviation funds.

“Your local share was going to be $24,297, if the bid would have matched the estimate,” Roetzel explained. “At the full bid amount the city’s share would be $27,994.”

However, if the city accepts the bid with all the reductions to the scope of the project, their share would actually increase to $27,994, because not as much would be eligible for state and federal funding.

Councilman Glenn Gaylord said he felt postponing the project for another year would not hurt the city in gaining the funding.

“I think we need to put this off for a year and then rebid it,” Gaylord said.

That is just what the council voted to do, as well as applying for a grant that would help pay for the cost of the design work for the building.

Another project gained strong support from the council except from Gaylord.

It was a proposal to pave several areas at the fairgrounds at a total cost of $71,665 as per a bid by Nielsen Blacktopping of Kasota.

Topping the project list was an asphalt surface for Midway Road to White Oak Road, on the east side of the fairgrounds. That cost was bid at $41,140. Another $21,420 was for White Oak Road to North Entrance Road.

A bid of $2,890 was for the Trinity Lutheran Church Stand access road, $3,230 for the Historical Society Road and $2,185 for an area in front of the Blue Earth Area School District bus garage.

City administrator Tim Ibisch pointed out that some of the work could be paid for by those entities and organizations.

Councilman Gaylord said he would like to see the county take a share in the cost of the paving project, since it benefits the fairgrounds.

He also said he could not support the project because it was not in the budget.

After the vote to proceed passed, Ibisch said the funds would come out of the street department budget, or out of the city’s reserve funds.

The City Council also heard about several other future state road and bridge projects, some of which are in the Blue Earth area.

Ronda Allis, of the Minnesota Department of Transportation, told the council that she is trying to get input on MnDOT’s plans for the next 10 years.

One project which affects Blue Earth is the paving of State Highway 169 from where the recent project ended, near the entrance to Riverside Cemetery, and continuing on down to the Minnesota-Iowa state line.

The project is tentatively scheduled for 2023.

“To be honest, this project is on the bubble, and may be removed from the list,” Allis said. “It was the last project added and we are not sure of the funding.”

Councilman Gaylord pointed out that the Blue Earth Ambulance and Fire Departments service Elmore and it would be necessary to have a decent road for the emergency equipment.

Councilman Dan Warner also asked about having a new railroad bridge over Highway 169, as the current one is too low and too narrow.

Allis said they would need to work with the railroad on that, but that it is on the list.

Other Faribault County projects include Highway 254 from I-90 to Frost (year 2022), Highway 22 from I-90 to Wells (year 2022), Highway 22 from Wells to Minnesota Lake (year 2023), and Highway 169 north of Winnebago (year 2025).