Harmony EDA Coordinator Chris Giesen presented the 2016 annual report to the Harmony City Council at their regular meeting on February 14, 2017.
“We were pretty active last year,” he noted. “We had some fun projects we worked on.”
Giesen informed the council that the DNR upgraded the classification of the state bike trail extension, which means that the project will be lead by the DNR. He hoped that the new classification will push the project along.
The EDA plans to continue to pursue the possibility of acquiring a dentist’s office in Harmony.
As last year’s joint meeting between the Harmony EDA, city council, and Fillmore Central School Board was so well received, another is planned for February 28 at 6 p.m. The atmosphere will be relaxed with casual discussion about ways for each group to help support each other and partner together on projects.
Over the last year, the EDA has granted five revolving loans to assist four new businesses and one existing business. The total amount of the loans came to $109,310.47. “We hit the one million dollar mark, which is a big milestone, especially for a town of this size,” Giesen pointed out.
The council thanked Giesen for his report and all of the hard work he does for the EDA. “Chris does an excellent job,” said Council Member Debbie Swenson. “We’re very lucky to have him.”
The furnace and air conditioner at the Harmony Public Library need to be replaced. City Administrator Jerome Illg presented two bids for the project. The council accepted a bid for the amount of $18,511.32 from Kingsley Mercantile.
Author Doug Ohman will be at the Harmony Public Library on February 21 at 7 p.m. to talk about his book, Heart of the Farm.
The Harmony Library Board is reviewing options for replacing the library’s desktop computers sometime in the near future. The current desktops are around six years old. Chromebooks and monitors were priced at $300 apiece as one of the choices available.
Engineer Brett Grabau from Stantec presented the finalized designs for the 2017 street and utility project to the council and asked permission to advertise for bids. The council approved the request.
The next meeting will be held on March 14 at 7 p.m.
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