Blue Earth gets bids for work on a new City Hall
Council learns work will not be done until end of 2024
The Blue Earth City Council took several actions during their meeting on Monday, July 1, that had to do with their plan to have a new City Hall.
The council approved several more bids for work to be done on the former Wells Fargo building to turn it into the new Blue Earth City Hall.
There were six bids for the general contracting work and the council awarded the bid to Ankeny Builders who had the low bid of $488,777.
There were also six bids for the electrical work and the low bid of $136,253 from Elite Electrical was approved by the council.
There were three bids for HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) work and the council approved the low bid of $45,356 from Ron’s Plumbing.
After some discussion, they also approved a bid for the plumbing work from Ron’s Plumbing, which was the third lowest of four bids at $59,589.
Despite increasing the bid for the plumbing work by about $17,000, the council said they felt it was important to have one contractor do all the plumbing and HVAC work.
At an earlier meeting the council had approved approximately $56,000 in security measures, such as door locks, security cameras, etc.
The city’s consultant, Tom McCone, of Brunton Associates, gave an update on the project via a video link, and said now that the city has approved the bids, he would get the contracts ready.
He added that the work is expected to all be done by December and the city should be able to move from the current City Hall to the new one by the end of the year.
The City Council also had a special guest at their meeting on Monday, July 1. Faribault County District Court Judge Troy Timmerman spoke during the public comment part of the meeting.
“I am not here as the judge,” he told the council. “I am here as a citizen of the city of Blue Earth.”
Timmerman had questions about the removal of the disc golf course from Putnam Park and the manner in which it was done.
“It seemed that it was summarily removed without any notice,” Timmerman said. “My family and I used it several times a week.”
Councilman Dan Ristau, chairman of the Parks and Rec Committee, responded to Timmerman’s questions and said several of the cages were damaged, and that the course was not part of the Putnam Park master plan.
“We did a survey last fall and the disc golf was not seen as a high priority by the public,” Ristau said. “That does not mean it might not go back into the plan, but hopefully in a better location.”
Timmerman questioned whether a skate park was on the plan. He was told that it was and that it had a higher priority than the disc golf.
“We used the disc golf a lot,” Timmerman concluded. “I missed seeing any survey, and that is on me. I hope it can be brought back.”
In other action at Monday’s meeting, the council:
• Approved the hiring of Stacy Hander as the new manager of the Blue Earth Wine and Spirits municipal liquor store, pending a background check.
City administrator Mary Kennedy reported that she and deputy city clerk Echo Roggenkamp interviewed five candidates for the position and that all five seemed to be well qualified for the job.
Hander has skills in budgeting, customer service and leadership, Kennedy told the council.
The council also approved the resignations of two part time employees at the Blue Earth Wine and Spirits municipal liquor store, Lawrence Berg and Kathy Johnson.
• Approved advertising for an additional waste water treatment plant operator.
Kennedy said they need to be prepared for any retirements in that department.
There are three current operators and some of them are close to retirement age, Kennedy added.
• Approved a change order for the Safe Routes to Schools project which started four years ago.
Completion was delayed mainly due to getting railroad permits. The delays caused an increase in cost of $6,306, city engineer Ben Rosol explained.
Rosol also gave an update on several current construction projects going on around the city, including the new tennis courts at Putnam Park, a Highland Drive lift station, the 2024 street and utility project and the future Riverside Heights sewer/street project set to be done in 2026.
One issue that was mentioned by a council member was that people have been playing tennis on the new courts, even though they are not open yet.
Rosol said that needs to stop because there is still a coating to go on the courts. The council suggested signs be installed at the new courts.
• Went over two sections of the Zoning Code during a half hour work session before the start of the regular meeting.
There were dozens of changes, deletions or corrections to inconsistencies made to the code by the staff at Bolton and Menk and previously studied by the city’s Planning Commission.
There are nine total sections to the Zoning Code and so the council will look at the other seven in future work sessions.