Jean Doran Matua
At a special meeting of the Kimball City Council on Monday, April 8, they moved to go ahead with some of the proposed improvements to the city infrastructure.
Because the city lost out on grant funding for this year, it was necessary to call a rather urgent meeting to decide which projects, if any, the city should do, at what cost, and with what funding. Present at the council meeting were the city engineer Randy Sabart, and the city’s financial advisor Shelly Eldridge. Several concerned members of the community were also in attendance.
Sabart presented the council with several options – from the most urgent, minimal repairs to full water/sewer/street reconstruction on certain city streets. Eldridge then presented the financial impact of some of these options.
After deliberation and public comment, the council unanimously chose “option 1”, a new city well plus water/sewer/street repairs on Hazel Avenue. With this option, the city can take advantage of the $1.056 million loan from Rural Development, as well as nearly $200,000 from Stearns County (toward street repairs on Hazel Ave.).
To keep both planning and costs manageable, actual construction on Hazel will be scheduled for 2003. This year will be spent working with city and county engineers planning the repairs. The city also plans to apply for more grant money that may be available for other needed repairs (like Magnus Johnson Street and Linden Avenue) in about two years or so.
Everyone present at the meeting seemed to agree that this plan was a wise way to proceed. Preparation can begin now for two most needed projects (the well and Hazel Ave.) for construction next year, while planning begins for future projects. The financial impact on Kimball taxpayers is spread out over several years and, according to Eldridge, the first tax impact won’t be felt until 2004.
Kuechle development
Also scheduled for the April 8 special meeting was the final plat approval for Jerome Kuechle’s development of Greeley Edition on the north end of town. The parties came to a workable and amicable agreement and, now that temperatures are above freezing, it’s full steam ahead on the development. They’ve already moved ground to begin installing sewer lines for the approximately 50 homes to be built on what used to be the Kimball drive-in theater.
Employee vacancies
Candidates were interviewed Monday night for the city works position. The person in this job will be involved in much of the “upkeep” of the city, including water and sewer, streets, parks, and whatever else needs to be maintained or repaired. A decision is expected soon.
Preliminary background checks are being done on some of the 37 applicants for the vacant police officer job. Interviews will be scheduled for a future city council meeting.
The next regular meeting of the Kimball City Council is Monday, April 15. Meetings are on the first and third Mondays of each month, at 7 p.m. in Kimball City Hall. Unless otherwise specified, all council meetings are open to the public. If you would like to address the council on an issue, please contact the city clerk/treasurer/administrator Dianne Robinson at 398-2725 to be put on the agenda for the next council meeting.