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“Where Fillmore County News Comes First” Weekly Edition
Visit Lanesboro, Whalan and Peterson for Taste of the Trail Pages 14-16
One Moment, Please... Lifelong education page
Monday, September 9, 2013
Twelve miles, no fingernails
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Volume 28 Issue 49
Rushford Village selects engineer for road work page
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Houston looking at speech therapy service page
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Canton l Chatfield l Fountain l Harmony l Lanesboro l Mabel l Ostrander l Peterson l Preston l Rushford l Rushford Village l Spring Valley l Whalan l Wykoff
County 2014 budget trimming continues By K aren R eisner karen@fillmorecountyjournal.com
Stantec engineer Brett Grabau gives details and answers questions about the proposed Twenty-14 Project. Photo by Karen Reisner
Preston to proceed with plans for Twenty-14 Project By K aren R eisner karen@fillmorecountyjournal.com
Stantec engineer Brett Grabau explained at the public hearing for the Twenty-14 Project that the proposed project will involve about one-third of the city’s streets and underlying utilities. A resolution was adopted later during the September 3 city council meeting to order plans and specifications for the project. The project is to include the Fire Hall area bordered on the west by Washington and Winona Streets, on the north by Spring and North Streets, on the east by St. Paul Street and on the south by River and Main Streets. The second project area is referred to as the South Hill area and includes
Judy Lane, Matthew Street and Russell Street. The reconstruction project will include both reconstruction of the streets and the underlying utilities. The estimated total project cost is $3,295,754 of which about $2 million is for street improvements. The balance will be for water main, storm sewer, sanitary sewer, and utility service improvements. The assessed portion of the street improvements is expected to be about $790,000. The assessed portion of the utility service is about $95,000. Assessments will total about $855,617 or 26.9 percent of the total project cost. The assessments will be figured according to the city’s assessment policy which was put into place in 2007.
Grabau estimated that residents would be assessed $60 to $65 per assessable frontage foot and about $1,100 to $1,200 per sanitary sewer service. The assessment policy allows for a minimum of 60 foot and a maximum of 150 foot to be assessed per property. The expected start date for the construction project is May 2014 with a substantial completion date of October 2014 and a final completion date of June 2015. The public asked a variety of questions. One man asked if there was a possibility to make Winona Street a dead end street. See PRESTON Page 6
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The Fillmore County Board’s goal is to get the levy increase for 2014 to zero. County coordinator Karen Brown at the board’s September 3 meeting announced a proposed budget increase of about $178,000 or 2.11 percent after the recommend adjustments by the board over the past several weeks were made. These numbers included additional cuts or added revenues from most department heads. Towards the end of the meeting, county engineer Ron Gregg added significant additional budget reductions from his department totaling $98,039. The highway department savings included postponing the replacement of the department’s 2007 Backhoe for one more year. Brown noted that some departments reported that they didn’t know where they could cut further or find more revenue. Commissioner Duane Bakke
maintained that even with a zero percent increase in the levy, some property owners will still see a tax increase while others will see a decrease. Brown said in her interpretation of the state law, the debt load would be included in the levy limit. Last year the county used $320,000 of fund balance to keep the levy increase lower. Bakke added that if fund balance is used to allow the levy increase to be zero, it would be much less than that which has been used in recent years. Auditor/treasurer Shirl Boelter insisted all the department heads are being thrifty. We have been trying to cut all along. Brown recommended they take one final look and do some research on the state mandate to see if it is being interpreted correctly. Chairman Randy Dahl asked about the rate of inflation. Brown noted the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was up 1.1 percent in April. See COUNTY Page 12
Lanesboro City Council talks trees yet, but they will. When it hits Lanesboro, the trees will need to jade@fillmorecountyjournal.com be removed anyway. A forester Lanesboro Street/Park Direc- looked at the trees and doesn’t tor Andy Drake approached the know why they are dying. Drake city council regarding several ash removed 15 trees from the park trees at Sylvan Park and around last year. town that are dying. He said Mayor Steven Rahn said if the they trimmed the dead parts off trees are dying, they should be the trees last year, but they need removed from the park. He said it again. He suggested they be it should be up to Drake’s discretion which trees come down and removed instead. According to Drake, the trees See LANESBORO Page 15 do not have Emerald Ash Borer By Jade Sexton
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