Council approves fund and interlocal agreement to rebuild College Avenue bridge with county support

The Goshen Common Council approved a new dedicated accounting fund and adopted an interlocal agreement with Elk River County to coordinate reconstruction of Bridge Number 410 as part of the College Avenue project.

Ordinance 5,241 establishes a County contribution fund so the county’s appropriation for the bridge reconstruction can be deposited and tracked separately while the bridge work is incorporated into the larger College Avenue contract. Don Schul, representing the city’s legal department, said the arrangement allows the city and county to let the entire College Avenue project at once and have one contractor coordinate both the road and the bridge work.

Council discussion focused on administrative details: a councilor asked whether the fund will be eliminated when the project closes out. Legal staff confirmed the ordinance includes terminating language so the fund ends automatically once the project is finalized and accounting is reconciled.

Separately, the council reviewed a redline revision of the interlocal agreement provided by Elk River County. Legal staff said most changes were word‑smithing; the principal substantive change (Section 4.2) shortens county response time for change orders to seven days unless implementing the change requires an additional appropriation, in which case the county needs more time. The council approved replacing the packet version with the redline interlocal, then voted to adopt Resolution 2025‑18 to authorize execution of the agreement.

Outcome and next steps: Both the ordinance and the interlocal agreement/resolution passed by unanimous votes. Staff will proceed with accounting setup for the fund and coordinate final contract letting with Elk River County as described in the interlocal agreement.