Albert Lea council orders plans for three 2025 street projects totaling about $1.83 million

The Albert Lea City Council on Feb. 24 approved resolutions to order improvements and prepare plans for three separate 2025 street projects: the Neighborhood Improvement Project (Job 02/2001), a State Aid Street Overlay (Job 02/2002) and the Eleventh Street reconstruction (Job 02/2003).

City Manager delivered staff reports for each project, saying the neighborhood improvement work is estimated at $1,098,887.39 and would be paid for with assessments, sanitary sewer funds and city bonding; the State Aid overlay is estimated at $200,902.08 and would be paid with assessments, sanitary sewer funds and city bonding; and the Eleventh Street reconstruction is estimated at $531,316.24 and would be paid with assessments, sanitary sewer funds, water funds and city bonding.

The City Manager said a neighborhood meeting for the Neighborhood Improvement Project was held Feb. 19 with three residents in attendance. For the State Aid overlay meeting held Feb. 17, the manager reported zero affected residents attended. For the Eleventh Street project staff said individual meetings were offered to three property owners because of the small number of parcels affected; staff recommended approval of the project.

Councilor Holland, who said she attended the neighborhood meeting for the neighborhood improvement project, thanked staff for answering property-owner questions: “I did have 1 other person reach out to me with some questions about the project on Lake Chapo and got all those questions answered with City staff and then relayed that back to the property owner.” Councilor Olson, speaking about the State Aid overlay area, said the work represents what he believes may be the final piece of a multi-year vicinity program: “...we've had a lot of road construction in our area the last 4 years. So hopefully we get a... little break.”

Each project drew a formal motion to order improvements and prepare plans. The Neighborhood Improvement Project motion was moved by Councilor Holland and seconded by Councilor Christiansen; the State Aid Street Overlay motion was moved by Councilor Olson and seconded by Councilor Holland; the Eleventh Street reconstruction motion was moved by Councilor Anderson and seconded by Councilor Baker. The clerk called the roll on each resolution and the motions carried.

Next steps for the projects include preparation of engineering plans and later solicitation of bids; the City will return to council for bid approvals and final assessments before work begins.

The council also noted that the separate Eberhardt Street and Utility Improvements Project (Job 24-13) was not ready to move forward and was moved to a future agenda.

Votes at a glance: - Neighborhood Improvement Project (Job 02/2001): motion moved by Councilor Holland; second by Councilor Christiansen; council recorded ayes from Councilors Christiansen, Baker, Holland, Olson, Van Beek and Anderson; motion carries. - State Aid Street Overlay (Job 02/2002): motion moved by Councilor Olson; second by Councilor Holland; council recorded ayes from Councilors Baker, Holland, Olson, Van Beek, Anderson, Christiansen and Mayor Murray; motion carries. - Eleventh Street reconstruction (Job 02/2003): motion moved by Councilor Anderson; second by Councilor Baker; clerk called the roll and the motion carried.