SLEEPY EYE - The Sleepy Eye City Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday to order $1.8 million in infrastructure improvements for the Snow Farm project on the east end of town.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation will pay for about $83,000 worth of storm sewer construction and engineering costs for the project. The project includes industrial, business and residential cul-de-sac development on 260 acres of land, which is now mostly being farmed.
Bond financing for the phase 1 of project, which will include extending Walnut Street to the east, will be proposed at the August city council meeting.
Initial project improvements include grade and gravel, storm sewer, sanitary sewer, watermain and services and design costs.
"Bond financing will give us a chance to sell some of the land and start paying off the debt," Sleepy Eye City Manager Mark Kober said. "We worked with the USDA for four years on this."
In other action the council
Renewed a Western Area Power Authority electric energy contract from 2021 through 2050.
"It's clean, cost-based hydro-electric power that provides 18 percent of our needs," said Sleepy Eye Electric Superintendent Bob Elston. "It's our lowest-cost and best option for future power. Sleepy Eye has been buying power from them since 1970."
Approved a .6 megawatt electric energy contract with Central Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (CMMPA) for future, fixed-price nuclear power from a new, more efficient, recommissioned plant.
Tabled discussion on joining the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program until the August meeting.
Approved a 3-foot setback on the east side of Sleepy Eye Repair so the firm can add a new lift. The required setback was 7.5 feet.
(Fritz Busch can be e-mailed at fbusch@nujournal.com).