BLUE EARTH — Blue Earth City Council learned this week that there soon could be a multi-unit apartment building constructed in the city.

APX Construction Group of Mankato has made a proposal to the city’s Housing and Rehabilitation Authority to build an apartment complex of 20 to 23 one- and two-bedroom apartments on a lot on 14th Street just east of the city’s tennis courts.

The HRA owns the lot, which contains one of two city-owned dog parks and the community garden area. The HRA is in favor of selling the lot to APX at a price of $1, the council was told.

The council voted to have a second reading of an ordinance at its second meeting in August that would transfer the ownership of the property to APX. There also would be a joint city/HRA public hearing on the proposal at the same meeting on Aug. 17.

The HRA and APX already have several other projects in the works for this summer. They include construction of multi-family units including townhomes and duplexes in two spots in current city residential areas, as well as locations in the new Prairie View subdivision on the northeast side of town.

In other business, the council took care of several items having to do with the various street reconstruction projects around the city, including:

o Voted to OK the purchase of a sewage grinder pump at a cost of $31,950, which will be assessed to the owner of the property the pump will serve in the Sailor Street project area.

o Voted to replace all of the sidewalks on Sixth Street in the South Sailor Street project, instead of just replacing the areas that were removed for utility lines. Cost of doing the extra sidewalk work will be $8,500, for a total of $17,923. This amount will be assessed to the affected property owners. Two council members questioned whether the cost could be spread out over the whole project, but were told it could not be, according to the city assessment policy.

o Voted to accept two change orders for the Leland Parkway project. One is for new traffic control signs because of a change in the detour route. The city share is $487. The other is for changes in the railroad abutments under the bridge, at a cost of $7,343, which will be paid by the county.

o Voted to accept a bid of $41,109 from Asphalt Surface Technologies of St. Cloud for sealcoating about 20 blocks of streets in the city. The bid was well within budget and quite a bit lower than the other three bids, with one as high as $61,000.