Greetings!
We are trying something new here in Le Sueur; a blog to keep the citizens and any other engaged individuals updated regarding what is happening in this great town, and there’s a lot! I hope I don’t bore anyone, so the updates will be short and sweet, but I urge anyone who has questions about particular items, wants to get involved, or just wants to talk, reach out! My direct phone number is 593-8312, and my email is jkruggel@cityoflesueur.com. I want to talk to you!
6/26/2017 City Council Meeting
We will continue to discuss the Le Sueur Community Center and how the City Council wants to approach their beginning of the year goal of doing an evaluation. We have proposals from two consulting firms that are both reputable and fully capable of providing information to help establish community expectations at the Le Sueur Community Center. The Le Sueur Community Center is one of the things that sets Le Sueur apart from other communities of 4,000 residents, and we need to utilize the revenue sources that fund operations there in the most efficient way possible. City Council will be evaluating and giving direction as to if they want to hire a consultant to perform some more specialized analysis or let staff make suggestions internally. If you’re interested, please come to the meeting or reach out to your City Council representative.
Other items consist of various permits, licenses, and policies, along with approving my appointment as City Administrator. These are important items that often go overlooked, but we have a great administrative support staff here that takes care of these items that help bring order to the community.
The agenda packet for the meeting can be found HERE, please take a look and ask questions!
As a note, staff and City Council has started the 2018 budget planning process. The process starts early, and that’s by design; we want input, and by we, I mean City Council and myself. The recently formed Comprehensive Plan Action Team is formulating ideas as to what 2040 Comprehensive Plan project we want to approach in 2018. If you have ideas, please feel free to reach out to the Chair of the group, Dave Johnson. Dave is a modest man, but he has taken it upon himself to champion the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which is no small task.
2017 Street and Utilities Improvement Project
As you may or may not be aware, the City of Le Sueur approved a contract with Wm. Mueller and Sons to reconstruct Second Street from Bridge Street to Grove Street. THIS IS A BIG DEAL! We are starting our pavement management program that is designed to address our aging street, water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure. A project page for this undertaking can be found HERE. If you are interested in specific updates for this project, sign up for Notify Me.
The contracts have been sent to Wm. Mueller and Sons, and a pre-construction meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 29th. This meeting is a chance for the contractor, City, and private utilities to meet and introduce key project personnel, review the schedule proposed by the contractor, and review the requirements of the contract. After the meeting, we can provide updates to the impacted residents and businesses regarding construction timing and access during construction.
There is no doubt that this will cause some inconvenience for residents that use that corridor, but bear with us, this is a great thing for the community!
Downtown Master Planning Project
There has been a flurry of activity in Le Sueur’s Downtown. City Council approved a contract with Hoisington Koegler Group Inc (HKGi) to study the downtown and plan its future. There was an open house held at the ValleyGreen Square Mall on June 8th that provided some of the background data compiled through the initial information gathering stage of the process. There will be two more open houses held at ValleyGreen Square Mall on August 10th and September 21st. Please attend if you are interested in the future of Le Sueur’s Downtown.
You can follow the project page HERE.
Streets Division
The Streets Division is out and about patching roads, in particular, South Main Street this week. Please be cautious when you see workers out and about as they are trying to keep the streets safe for vehicles and pedestrians. The Streets Division also hauled FIVE dump truck loads of tires! Most of these came from a mysterious pile that accumulated on the airport property boundary. This is a reminder to utilize the various community clean up events that both the city and the county offer to help get rid of some of these items that aren’t easily disposed of properly.
Our Forester also inspected two ash trees for suspected Emerald Ash Borer, but none were found. If you’re interested in this invasive pest, here is a LINK.
Water/Wastewater Division
The Water/Wastewater Division are the guys behind the guys. They work behind the scenes to make sure that when you turn your water on to wash your hands or flush your toilet, you don’t have to worry. That being said, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes to make sure those services essentially remain uninterrupted. Currently, they are working on sewer cleaning and televising, which helps identify issues before they cause too much trouble. Also, fire hydrants were flushed in May and will be painted this summer by our wonderful seasonal staff.
One more thing is that the plaque memorializing our Wastewater Treatment Facility was finally mounted, ten years late! Better late than never!
Electric Division
The Electric Division is also another group that works in the background to provide expected services to citizens of Le Sueur. Right now, they are working on replacing aged underground and old transformers in the 400 block of Park Lane. The electrical staff is working on developing a long-term plan to transition from overhead electrical lines to underground services, but we must first address some of our older underground that is deteriorating before we start addressing overhead lines that currently work just fine.
Community Development
Sam DiMaggio has been with the City of Le Sueur for a little over six weeks, and her presence is very evident. She is out in the community meeting business leaders and owners and gauging the needs of the community. She is also exploring some of the housing needs the community currently has. Likely we will see some of her fresh ideas popping up shortly.
City Council authorized staff to submit an application for the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF), Rural Entrepreneur Venture (REV) program. If Le Sueur is selected for this program, it will help identify and grow businesses in the area using best practices and the incubator model.
If you see Sam out and about in the community, try to say hi to her before she does, she’s one of a kind and a great addition to our team!
Parks and Recreation
The Parks and Recreation Department is in prime form maintaining the parks around town. Cedar Ridge Trails Playground is undergoing some maintenance and will be closed for the next couple weeks, but a drainage system, new border, and playground mulch is being installed.
The outdoor pool is also open for business; the weather has been great, and we have seen high participation.
Facilities
The City of Le Sueur has a lot of facilities that are maintained by staff. This past week, the Facilities Manager has been repairing rooftop air conditioners at the Le Sueur Community Center, repairing ventilation dampers and the exhaust fan at a well house, repairing the water softening system at the Wastewater Treatment Facility, and working on repairing the drinking fountain at the Library.
The big mower out at the airport also received some TLC. The mower decks were repaired by reinforcing some of the welds, and the blades (300 ) were all replaced.
Staff is also starting a project establishing the boundary of the airport by installing posts with signage. There has been some encroachment onto the property in the past, but we have been successfully working with adjacent property owners to make sure they aren’t storing equipment or other items on airport property.
Police
Safety Camp was held last week at the Le Sueur Community Center. Safety Camp is a pretty amazing program that I feel is not utilized to it’s highest potential. We had 24 participants aged 8-10 years old attend the day-long event. Activities included:
Nature activities (Ney Nature Center)
Farm Safety (Farm Bureau)
Electrical Safety (MN Valley Electric Co-op)
Weather Safety (Blue Earth County Emergency Management)
Water Safety (Le Sueur County Water Patrol)
Animal Safety (Minnesota Veterinarian Service)
Air Ambulance (Mayo Health Services)
Bike Safety – Bike Rodeo (Le Sueur Police Department)
Personal Safety (ATA Karate)
Firearm Safety (Le Sueur Police)
Fire Safety (Le Sueur Fire Department)
Medical Emergencies (Ridgeview Ambulance Service)
The volunteers and businesses that make this happen are AMAZING! Again, I feel this is a great camp and provides our youth with great knowledge pertaining to a number of items. Keep an eye open for Safety Camp 2018!
Closing Thoughts
Well, this got a little longer than I wanted, but it’s the first one, and we covered a lot of ground. My hope is to post something like this weekly to keep people informed regarding city operations. Again, feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or comments. Have a great weekend!