The Blue Earth City Council had a lot of things to approve at their meeting on Monday, April 20, with a bevy of new ordinances and resolutions being passed. Also on their agenda was a discussion about mosquito spraying services for the 2026 season, as well as some Conditional Use Permits (CUPs) for the United Hospital District (UHD) to expand its parking lot.

City administrator Dawn Collins presented the council with the responses from the city’s Request For Proposal (RFP) for mosquito spraying services.

“We did not receive many responses to our RFP for mosquito spraying for this summer,” Collins reported. “We received one response from Vector Disease Control international (VDCI), who offers spray applications on an “as needed” basis at a charge of $1,859.86 per application. Within our budgeted amount of $15,000 for the year, this price would provide us eight applications for the season, which is in line with last year’s number of spray applications, which was seven.”

Collins also shared that she had reached out to the city’s current provider for mosquito spraying services, Mosquito Control of Iowa, for a cost per application. She was informed that they could offer a maximum of six spray applications within the city’s budget of $15,000, with additional sprayings charged at a cost of $2,500 per visit.

“You mentioned that VDCI offers sprayings on an as-needed basis,” council member John Huisman remarked. “We can plan to spray before our summer events, like we have in the past, but how do we plan for non-scheduled event sprayings? Who decides that?”

“We are allowed to select tentative spraying dates for the season in advance, which means that we can plan to spray before big events, but also have some flexibility in case the weather doesn’t cooperate, or if we need additional spraying outside of events,” Collins replied.

A couple of council members expressed that they would like some more information on the services that VDCI offers, including how spraying differs from fogging, which is the method that Mosquito Control of Iowa has used in the past.

“We can go ahead and approve VDCI for the 2026 season, and Dawn can invite them to one of our next City Council meetings so we can learn more about how their process works,” mayor Rick Scholtes suggested. “That way we can have some spraying dates set for the summer, and be more informed if we decide to work with them again next year.”

Following discussion, a motion was made and seconded to approve VDCI as the city’s mosquito spraying service for the 2026 season. The motion passed unanimously.

Scholtes presented the council with the CUPs from UHD, showing the map of the parcels which they had recently obtained and the documents from the Planning Commission’s meeting on April 16 which detailed the plans for those spaces.

“The three residential lots that UHD has acquired to expand their parking lot are the three located near 617 South Moore Street,” Scholtes explained. “There may be some zoning adjustments in the future to make it so that these three lots are no longer classified as residential, but for now, UHD is proceeding with the CUPs for these three lots to be able to expand their parking lot.”

“Is this new parking space intended to be used by UHD employees, or by the public?” council member Ann Hanna asked.

Scholtes replied that he was uncertain at this time, but it was likely that it would be divided up and used for both purposes.

Hearing no further discussion on the issue, a motion was made and seconded to approve Resolution 26-14, granting the CUP for parcel 21.446.0520 (lot north of 617 South Moore Street). The motion passed unanimously.

Motions were also made to approve Resolution 26-15 for parcel 21.446.0540 (617 South Moore St.) and Resolution 26-16 for parcel 21.446.0570 (205 East 12th Street). These motions were also passed unanimously.

City attorney David Frundt also presented the council with a request from UHD to add more 90-degree parking spaces located along Galbraith Street, intended for exclusive use by UHD hospital and clinic staff.

“UHD is requesting authorization to use the public right-of-way along Galbraith Street as designated employee parking,” Frundt shared. “There are already a few 90-degree parking spaces located in this area, and the intent is to add more so that there are a total of 18. These parking spots would belong to UHD, but in the event that construction or some other work needs to be done in that area, that location would temporarily become public property for the purposes of completing that work.”

Hearing no further discussion on the issue, a motion was made and seconded to approve the request for authorization for UHD. The motion passed unanimously.

Other business discussed at the City Council meeting included:

• Ordinance 26-04 amending Section 310 relating to mobile food units was passed unanimously.

• Ordinance 26-05 defining measurement standards for properties in Blue Earth was passed unanimously.

• Ordinance 26-06 amending Section 440 to set new cannabis business regulations was passed unanimously.

• Ordinance 26-07 amending the nuisance code to prohibit the disposal of garbage via recycling bins was approved unanimously.

• • A motion to deny Resolution 26-17 granting a conditional use permit for Recover In Motion to use the property located at 311 South Nicollet St. as a residential substance use disorder treatment program location was unanimously approved.

• Resolution 26-18 approving a variance for a side yard setback for the property located at 216 West Circle Drive was approved unanimously.

• Resolution 26-19 approving a variance for a fence taller that seven feet for New Chances Humane Society was approved unanimously.

• Construction testing services, to be performed by American Engineering Testing, for the Riverside Heights Improvement project were unanimously approved.