At their November 13 meeting, the Spring Valley City Council heard from Drew Weber, of Bolton and Menk, as he proposed reconstructing the blower room in the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP).
In September the council approved the purchase of six new blowers. Weber suggested the council also consider reconfiguring the blower room to make it more accessible.
“This was something that was going to be addressed with the bigger treatment plant project, but these wouldn’t be eligible for grant dollars, so it is more efficient and cost effective to do those now,” Weber explained.
The council approved the work order for the proposed project.
It was noted a video is being made for the council and public to get a behind the scenes view of how the plant operates.
Grant Applications for Road Improvement
Weber then went on to discuss the authorization of the pursuit of 2023 local road improvement funding. “I’ve been working on grant applications with Deb (Zimmer, city administrator) for two potential projects in town through the Local Road Improvement Program (LRIP). It is a program through MnDOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation) that covers street and storm sewer cost. There are certain stipulations within the program, but we’ve identified two project locations that fit.”
The first proposed project is Tracy Road going from the Kingsland school to Highway 16. According to Weber, this would allow for pedestrian safety to be improved.
The second project is for Main Street, along with some improvements to Broadway Avenue.
The council approved the pursuit of grant funds for these projects. The applications will be submitted in December and the city should be notified in March if they have qualified for any funds.
Downtown Proposal
Earlier this year, the Spring Valley Business Alliance asked the council to allow them to try temporary seating areas at the end of each block downtown with the theory that this would create a more restricted roadway which would in turn slow traffic down and help prevent drivers from going the wrong way down the oneway, as well as creating a gathering space for residents and visitors to enjoy.
The concept went though a trial run during this year’s Wednesdays on Broadway events.
The council decided to move forward with the next steps of the project, which focus on information gathering and concept building.
“I laid out a plan that I think could be effective and efficient as far as gathering some of the public input and ultimately presenting to the council our findings,” Weber said. “The first step would be forming an advisory committee of some sort. This would be made up of city staff, public utilities, a council member, downtown business owners, residents; its not going to be a massive group because you want to make those meetings efficient,” Weber explained. “What I’ve laid out for meeting number one is understanding the scope, what is the potential project here, what do people desire and love about downtown and what do they wish to see in downtown.”
The next step would be to conduct a citywide survey to get the opinions of all the residents. Weber suggested using the city’s newsletter or including it with utility bills.
The committee would then meet again to discuss the survey, review concept ideas and refine those ideas.
An open house would then be held to show the progress, show the results of the survey and to gather more feedback from residents.
A final meeting would then be held for the committee to determine which concept will be brought forward to the council.
Weber noted that this project is included with the above mentioned grant applications, so the funding could potentially be covered through LRIP.
Once decided, the committee will present the concept to the council.
The council voted to move forward with the proposed plan. The first meeting is tentatively scheduled for January 2024.
Other Business
• After hearing from Tom Wiener, of Construction Management Services of Rochester (CMS), the council voted to approve the building inspections services agreement.
• The council voted to renew their waste removal contract with LRS (Formerly Sunshine Sanitation) for another five years. Per the contract, there will be no increase for 2024 and annual increases after next year will be no more than 3%.
• The council approved a 28 day extension for the completion date of the 2023 Farmers Street and County Sate Aid Highway (CSAH) 1 project, as the intersections of Hillcrest Drive and Maple Lane were added to the project.
• The pay estimate from Rochester Sand and Gravel of $309,234.14 for the Territorial Road and Broadway Avenue project was approved.
• The council approved the Fremont street pay estimate to Ulland Brothers at a cost of $75,268.38. They also approved the Farmer Street and CSAH 1 pay estimate of $648,898.79 to Ulland Brothers.
• The city’s earned sick and safe time policy was updated to follow the state’s current policy.
• Parks and Recs Director John Fenske noted the floors of the community center will be redone beginning the second week of January. He thanked The Spring Valley Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 4114 for hosting Senior Dining during the two week closure.
• Spring Valley’s annual Christmas on Broadway will be held on December 9. The council approved road closures for the event and noted that helmets will be required on the sledding hill.
• The next council meeting will be held on December 11 at 6 p.m.
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