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Tiny houses cause a big discussion

Council votes 4-3 to continue HRA study

By Chuck Hunt - Editor | Nov 3, 2024

It was a pretty full house at the last Blue Earth City Council meeting, shown above. In the photo, Loren Eckhardt is asking the council for permission to put some U.S. and military related flags along Leland Parkway for Veterans Day. The council granted permission.

With a lot on the agenda, the Blue Earth City Council ended up with a longer than usual meeting on Monday night, Oct. 28. And, once again, the council chambers were filled with citizens attending the meeting.

It was an agenda item of possibly building tiny houses in Blue Earth that drew the most discussion by the council, with some input from the audience.

It started with an update on the Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s progress on looking at the possible use of a large lot by the tennis courts to build 11 tiny houses.

Council member Mike McNerney said he had been hearing from residents of Blue Earth, including neighbors from that area, who are questioning the concept of tiny houses.

“Who do we think will want to rent these?” McNerney questioned. “If they are built and no one rents them, whose neck is on the line to pay for them?”

Mayor Rick Scholtes responded that it would be the city’s responsibility to cover the cost.

“This is what the HRA is doing, looking at the financing options and whether to build or not,” Scholtes explained. “Any plan would be presented to the council.”

Councilman John Huisman said he felt that the HRA is the group to work on housing issues in the city.

“Why are we afraid to have them explore this option,” Huisman asked.

Scholtes said the question seems to be if the council wants to have the HRA continue to pursue the tiny house possibilities or not.

At a previous meeting the council had voted 6-1 to have the HRA continue to study the possibility of constructing tiny houses in Blue Earth and how it could be financed.

However, on Monday night they voted again to have the HRA continue to study the possible construction but it was a much closer vote. This time the vote was 4-3, with council members Huisman, Dan Ristau and Stephanie Walter voting in favor, and council members Jacqui Drew, Ann Hanna and McNerney voting against it.

Mayor Scholtes broke the 3-3 tie by voting in favor of having the HRA continue to study the tiny house idea.

Another one of the items on the agenda had also brought several people to the meeting. It had to do with excess water in the basements of two homes on Nicollet Street.

At a previous meeting the council had decided to dig a trench in one of the yards to see if they could find the reason for sump pumps in the two houses running continuously for months.

The lengthy report suggested that a sanitary sewer line that had been abandoned in 1949 had been acting as a drain tile to remove the groundwater from the area. Construction of new water and sewer lines and street surface on Nicollet Street in 2021 had the old sanitary sewer line capped and filled with sand.

Mayor Scholtes explained that there were limited ways to fix the issue, and suggested it could be just that the sump pumps would have to continue to run.

Resident Linda Steinhauer and representatives of the other homeowner, Margaret Trenary, said they felt some other solution should be pursued.

One solution would involve a new drain line, getting easements and digging up the entire area. Mayor Scholtes said it would end up to be very expensive.

“If we did this in this case, we would then have to do it in other cases that could arise,” he said. “It could trigger other requests.”

The residents of the area said this had not been a problem until the 2021 street project, so they felt the city needed to fix it.

“I have lived here for 23 years and never had water in my basement, just a little seepage, until this year,” Russ Erichsrud, who lives next door, said.

In the end, the council decided to get more information from the city engineer, including some cost estimates on any ideas for a solution to the issue.

Another water related agenda item for the council was to look at bids for a new water treatment plant.

The city and Blue Earth Light and Water received six bids for the project, with the lowest bid coming in at $16.6 million. It was from Wapasha Construction of Winona.

The project information and the bids were presented by Bolton and Menk engineer Jake Pichelmann.

“The project will allow Blue Earth Light and Water to do a much needed renovation of the existing water treatment facility including the addition of reverse osmosis technology,” Pichelmann said.

After discussion the council approved accepting the low bid, contingent upon the city and Blue Earth Light and Water getting sufficient financing from the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority to cover a majority of the cost of the project.

In other business at the Monday meeting, the City Council:

• Looked at both a possible cannabis ordinance for the city, and the proposed 2025 city budget during a work session before the regular meeting.

• Discussed the possible splitting up of the current City Hall into separate parcels. In the end they voted to just split off the alleyway and parking lot at this time. If the city has no one interested in purchasing the whole structure, it could be split up.

• Discussed making improvements to Putnam Park next year, but did not make any decisions on the proposals.

Doing all of the project would cost an estimated $814,000, and would include a mini-golf course, pavilion, amphitheater and nature trail.

• Approved a proposal for purchasing furniture, including chairs and a conference table, for use at the new City Hall.

• Passed a development agreement, purchase agreement and a resolution that all had to do with the sale of two lots on Prairie Rose Drive in the new Prairie View housing development in northeast Blue Earth.

• Heard an update from city attorney David Frundt concerning two unoccupied houses in town that are in disrepair.

Frundt reported that one of them, at 525 E. Fifth Street, is listed as being owned by someone who died in 1974. Frundt said it appears the property taxes are being paid, by the wife of one of the five children.

“This will be difficult to proceed with abatement procedures,” Frundt told the council. “Due to getting a clear title issues and no record of probate.”

The other house, also on East Fifth Street, also has owners who are difficult to determine and find, but Frundt reported they are continuing to keep working on the two cases.

“My recommendation is to continue with the code enforcement to determine if the structure is a hazardous building,” Frundt said. “Then we can proceed from there.”