Photo by Ben Bisbach
The first meeting of the Canton City Council in 2026 began with a Public Hearing. The purpose of the hearing was to adopt the five-year street and utility reconstruction plan, and discuss the issue of a bond in an amount not greater than $1,539,000. A handful of citizens were in attendance to ask questions. One resident asked if water rates would keep going up. City Clerk Anne Koliha wasn’t able to answer for sure, but described that there is already a line item in the budget to service the loan. Because there is grant money for this project coming from USDA Rural Development, the process is more complex than typical city budget planning. Another citizen asked when work would likely begin; the earliest would be the beginning of summer, but more likely the project will start up in the fall.
The Public Hearing was adjourned and the regular meeting was called to order. Mayor Kristy Ziegler gave a brief statement describing why the project is being funded out of the budget rather than individual assessments to resident’s property taxes. Funding through the city budget enabled the cost to be spread among all residents of the city, while assessments would require property owners with road frontage to bear the entire cost. Despite the impact of the project, Canton’s levy is still set to come in lower than many surrounding communities.
Clerk Koliha reported that the city was randomly selected by the Dept of Revenue for an audit of the city’s solid waste tax. This tax is essentially the fee residents pay for garbage pickup. She is not sure exactly what the audit will entail but said she isn’t worried. The city last received this type of audit in 2014. She also gave a final summary on 2025 numbers: everything was within budget, and revenue was on target.
The only comment from Deputy Clerk Barb Kerns was an appeal to residents to renew their city pet licenses. She said there has been a steady trickle of people coming in to do so.
Public Works director Jon Nordsving informed the council that the MPCA (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency) had completed its inspection of the wastewater treatment plant. This occurs every 3-5 years. He doesn’t have the results yet, but thinks it went well. He also reported there had been a water main break earlier that day. They were able to get it fixed but have some more cleanup work to do. He then told the council not to try and get a hold of him, because he had dropped his phone into the hole and was not able to fish it out. He dryly stated “It has not been a good day.” Councilman George Hafner quipped that maybe he would find the phone later that year when they start digging up the streets.
Following the Department reports, representatives of WHKS Engineering gave a presentation on their plans for the city’s well and wellhouse project. Schematics of the new system were distributed to the council. They plan to split the work into smaller projects, including water tower painting, digging the new well, and reworking the connections to the city lines, all while maintaining a constant flow of water to the city. The engineers requested approval from the council to send the plans to USDA Rural Development for review. The council voted to send the plans and thanked the representatives for their work.
The final order of business was approval of the 2025 Fillmore County Hazard Mitigation Plan. Clerk Kohila had worked with nearby municipalities and Fillmore County to put together the plan. It will now be sent along state and federal agencies (FEMA).
The meeting was adjourned at 6:30.
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