By Robert Williams

Editor

The City of Vergas held a 40-minute preliminary public hearing on Wednesday, Aug. 14, on the city center parking lot improvements at 140 E. Linden, 111 E. Main Street and 131 E. Main Street, including alleys and parking lots.

The work includes roadway surfacing improvements and improving public utilities (storm drains).

Widseth Engineering’s Blaine Green, the City Engineer, hosted the meeting and spoke to a full room of residents in the city council chamber at the Event Center.

Green cited the project need as coinciding with the top need stressed in Vergas’ comprehensive plan—that being a need for more parking.

The space became open when the city acquired the former county garage and had the building removed. What is left on the surface requires improvement, along with the adjacent alleyway that has issues, like cracking of the pavement and drainage problems.

“In addition, there are further drainage issues as it goes to the northeast where those catch basins are,” Green said. 

The assessed portion of the project is only for the alley, according to the Vergas Streets committee. The estimated project cost for alleys in the city, 50 percent of the project costs are assessed to the benefitting adjacent properties.

The project entails the removal of all bituminous surfaces, bringing it to a proper grade, along with potential problems in the subsurface that are yet fully unknown.

There are options for adjoining properties to piggyback on the project, as well.

“To look at paving their parking lots and this is an optional paving tag-on with this project and maybe get better bid prices,” said Green. “It would essentially help the overall parking lot get back together.”

Optional work would be 100 percent cost to the owner.

Currently, the total project cost is approximately $180,000 for all the work and that includes optional work agreed upon by five adjacent private owners and the city.

As a rough estimate, Green noted the cost to Hanson’s Plumbing & Heating would be around $25,000. Green added the caveat that it is not designed and the estimate is very preliminary. A small wedge of private work that belongs to the hardware store would be as low as $500.

The total estimated redo of the alley cost is $30,000. The assessed amount would then be $15,000 split between the benefitting properties.

According to Green, the city has a per linear foot of frontage assessment. There is 560-feet of frontage making the assessment $26.88 per linear foot of frontage.

“That includes city property and adjacent properties that also abut that alley,” Green said.

Green gave a few “conservative estimates” if paid right away the cost would be around $4,000 for a 100-feet lot abutting the alley; a 50-foot lot would be $1,300.

If approved, a timeline for the project would be plans and specifications this winter and early spring, with bids for the project scheduled for February and construction early in 2025 to avoid tourist traffic.

One question asked was why the city did not utilize a half-cent sales tax to pay for the project.

Currently, there is a Minnesota legislative moratorium on sales tax. According to the League of Minnesota Cities, the practical effect of this moratorium is that the Legislature will not consider any local sales tax proposals during the 2024 or 2025 legislative sessions.

Council Liaison Bruce Albright spoke on behalf of fellow councilman Paul Pinke and the street committee about the project.

“We’ve heard about the problems; we’ve heard about the drainage; I think Altona Square took care of some of those problems for us and we thank them for that regard,” he said. “We’ve had water in the liquor store, water in the post office; there’s been water in the basement of the hardware store. If you’re going to tear this area up it makes sense then to kill two birds with one stone and address the drainage problems once and for all and be done with it.”

No decision was made at the meeting or the following council meeting. A second and final public hearing will be scheduled in the future with more information and more precise construction costs.