BP sets hearing for roads
A public hearing will be held at 6 p.m. Nov. 9 to allow Blooming Prairie residents the opportunity to weigh in on the city’s 2027 street improvements feasibility study.
The report examines four distinct areas in town where the city has recognized a need for road surface repair; the proposal indicates the improvements would be made in the summer of 2027.
The total estimated project cost is between $640,000 and $647,000, depending on layout options for one of the areas.
The four areas are:
Area 1: Fourth Avenue SW (between Second and Third Streets SW) In 2012, the existing surface was rated a 4 on the Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating scale of 1 to 10 on a visual inspection.
Since then, the road has begun to rapidly fail, prompting city staff to patch large portions with their own employees and hired contractors.
The watermain in the area is “beyond its useful life,” the report says, but replacement would mean greater costs and full reconstruction of the road.
Area 2: Memorial Drive South (between Third and First Streets SW) The city would like to reconfigure this southern segment to match the road geometrics on the northern segments, with a raised center grass median and split north and south drive lanes.
Both the existing sanitary sewer and the existing watermain infrastructure are beyond their useful lives, but again, replacement would require additional costs for full reconstruction of the road.
The engineers recommend replacing the sanitary sewer manholes only, and monitoring the sewer piping. No improvements to the storm sewer system, aside from the replacement of storm catch basins, is expected.
Area 3: Memorial Drive South (between First Street SW and south of Main Street west) is simply a northern extension of the Area 2 improvements.
As in Area 2, both the existing sanitary sewer and the existing watermain infrastructure are beyond their useful lives, but again, replacement would require additional costs for full reconstruction of the road.
The engineers’ recommendation, like Area 2, is to replace the sanitary sewer manholes only, and monitor the sewer piping. No improvements to the storm sewer system, aside from the replacement of storm catch basins, is expected.
Area 4: Fourth Street NE (between U.S. Highway 218 and Center Avenue) was rated a 3 on the PASER evaluation scale in 2012, with large portions patched by the city and hired contractors.
There are minimal sanitary sewer utilities in this area; the proposal is to televise and monitor it for a future project, and replace the existing manholes as part of this project.
The existing watermain here is also beyond its useful life, but replacement would require more money and full reconstruction of the street.
All of the improvements would be made by reclaiming the existing pavement and its underlying aggregate base, then repaving.
The city does not plan to bond for the money, instead financing it with existing reserves. Those funds would then be paid back by revenue generated through special assessments, utility enterprise funds and general tax revenue.
BP’s assessment policy is that the costs of street reconstruction improvements may be partially assessed.
The property owners are assessed 35% of the costs; the city pays the remaining 65%, plus any additional costs.
The city pays 100% of the costs associated with storm and sanitary sewer improvements for street reconstructions projects like this.
Setting the public hearing for assessments “just gives the opportunity for those residents to come in and voice their opinion,” said City Administrator Tony Martens. “That doesn’t mean we have to do it; if the council chooses to change its assessment policy for this specific project – or do something else – then we’ll have to recalculate these numbers for the project anyway.”
City Engineer Brett Grabau said “all my other communities (he serves) are assessing 40%, except for one that’s assessing 50%. You made the choice when you adopted your assessment policy to keep it as resident-friendly as possible.”
Blooming Prairie is not an outlier when it comes to the age of its utilities, however.
The municipalities Grabau serves – most of them similar in size to BP – are 70-plus years old. Not surprisingly, “it’s 100% because of funding issues,” he said.
“It isn’t like we don’t want to do the roads,” said council member Bill Newman, “it’s just that we don’t want to overtax our citizens to maintain the roads to what everybody thinks they want.”
“Everybody pays for everything at some point, right?” Grabau said. “Whether that’s (through) the general levy, whether it’s through utility enterprise funds, whether it’s through special assessments, it’s just what mechanisms councils have to be able to move projects forward.”
Newman agreed.
“It’s just how you divide it up.”
Councilor Brad Clark was the lone opposing vote in the approval of the feasibility study, as well as setting the public hearing. He cast his votes without comment.
Council member Greg Johnson was not present for the Oct. 12 meeting.