BLUE EARTH– An update on the need for a new police garage took precedence at the Blue Earth City Council meeting on Monday.

Public Works director and interim city administrator Jamie Holland presented the council with an update from police chief Tom Fletcher concerning the ongoing search for options for a new police garage.

“We haven’t identified any existing buildings that are readily available to convert into a garage, but we’ve explored the options for building a new cold storage building that would be shared between the police and public works departments,” Holland explained.

According to the report, a potential location next to the city wastewater treatment plant – the former Schwab property, now owned by the city – would be an ideal spot to construct such a building. Preliminary estimated costs for a 48×72 building in that location are between $80,000 and $100,000.

“Chief Fletcher feels that this idea of a split-use building would work well, and I agree with him,” Holland shared. “The Public Works Department is currently storing some of our property in seasonal storage at the fairgrounds, so a building like this would be an ideal location to store those items.”

Following some discussion from the council, a motion was made and seconded to allow Holland to proceed with a Request For Proposal (RFP) to construct the police garage in this new location. The motion was approved unanimously by the council.

Other business discussed at the City Council meeting included:

— A temporary beer license for the Blue Earth Pirates and a solicitor permit for Clear Cut Xteriors were both unanimously approved.

— A travel request for Wesley Bell of the Blue Earth wastewater treatment plant to attend a Type 4 Minnesota Pollution Control Agency training session on May 19-20 was unanimously approved.

— City engineer Ben Rosol presented the council with updates for the sanitary sewer extension east of Highway 169, a cost estimate concept for the East 14th Street project, and Resolutions 25-14 and 21-15 for MPFA lead service line replacement project applications. Both resolutions were approved unanimously by the council.

— City attorney David Frundt provided an update on the properties at 525 East Fifth St. and 1006 East Fifth St. Frundt shared that family members with rights to the 525 property have been in touch, and are willing to turn the property over to the city. For the 1006 property, no word has been received from the family, and the city is ready to proceed with a petition for a hearing to take over ownership of the property.

— Blue Earth EDA specialist Amy Schaefer presented the City Council with a request for permission to actively communicate the City’s willingness to consider Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and tax abatement as development incentives for prospective businesses, as well as authorization to draft a formal TIF Program Policy and Business Tax Abatement Policy for future council consideration. Following some discussion by the council, a motion was made and seconded to grant this request. The motion was passed unanimously.