The  major topic of discussion at last week’s city council meeting was the future plans for streets in town as the Capital Improvement Plan is set in motion. Obviously, the streets where the water, sewer, and sanitary sewer are replaced will be ripped up.  The city will need to decide what material they want to use to pave those streets. 

Right now, most of the city streets are seal coated with a combination of oil and pea gravel. Every few years each street is re-surfaced with those materials.  The city used to be able to do that work themselves, but when the seal coater broke down, it was decided to hire that work done by an outside contractor.

There are a few streets that are paved with asphalt and many of those have been seal coated on top of the asphalt. Mechanic Street is an example of that.  

Edgerton has one concrete street – 8th Avenue, a short one-block section on the west side of town. 

John Cunningham with the Aggregate & Ready Mix Association came to talk to the council about the process they should use to decide what type of material to use for the new streets.  He suggested that the city have “A mix of fixes for your street work.”

The Aggregate and Ready Mix Association works with Buffalo Ridge Concrete, K & M Concrete, and Hulstein Concrete and Construction. They do all the MnDOT technical certifications, and work with several national organizations, as well. 

“We try to be a resource for you,” Cunningham said. “And a repository of knowledge.” Their training services and advice are offered free of charge. 

“A city’s needs are diverse and require more than one solution,” he said during his presentation. “Open the tool box as wide as possible and use all the tools available – asphalt, seal coat, crushed stone, concrete pavement, etc. See how all the tools can work for you. Don’t just focus on one primary tool.”

Cunningham went on to explain that while one surface may seem more expensive at the outset, the city should look at the long-term costs of maintenance as well and then look at what the total cost of ownership will be, not just the total cost of construction. 

He encouraged the council to evaluate the city’s street needs. “Streets are the most visible and important piece of a city’s infrastructure. People will notice if they are in disrepair,” he said. He added that good streets improve traffic flow and safety as well as ascetics. 

“Streets are a big investment, and that’s for a good reason,” he added.

The city council thanked Cunningham for his presentation. He offered to come back and sit down in an informal meeting to help them look at Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) for the streets. The city will also be working on this with DGR in the coming months. 

Jeff Snyder reported that the city parks are open and there are people camping at Rock River Park. They have had people camping already. There was some vandalism at the park over the winter, but they are getting those things repaired. The pool has a crack in it that they are working on fixing. 

Snyder also reported that on April 30, nearly an inch of rain fell. The next day his sanitary sewer pumping was up 40,000 gallons.  The extra water is coming into the sanitary system because of cracks in pipes and the decay of bricks at the manholes. Jeff sees this as direct evidence that the infrastructure needs updating. 

Snyder also said that they will be getting someone in to check for water leaks. There is 30 percent of the city’s total water usage that is unaccounted for.  So they need to find where the leaks are happening. 

Joel Farrington, the city clerk and EDA director, has been working on a Federal Economic Development Grant. This $4.8 million grant could potentially help some capital improvement for Main Street, but is dependent on the Main Street businesses submitting letters about issues they have had and asking for the grant.  

Riley Reinhart from DGR gave a report on the plans for the DNR Grant at the city park. He showed the council an updated drawing and talked about the concrete plans for the new courts. They hope to start construction after the Dutch Festival. The city approved the engineering agreement for this work.

The council also approved the sale of beer products by the Edgerton Fire Department at the Dutch Festival this summer. Dutch Festival Chairman Jesse Van Hofwegen thanked the council for the funding they provided. It allowed them to book an ATV Big Air event. They were able to get a lower price on the event because they could make a down payment in advance. 

In 2021, the Edgerton Development Association was asked to pay part of Farrington’s salary because he is also the EDA Director. Farrington said that the EDA has concerns with this because they will be operating with negative cash flow if they pay for 15 percent of his salary.  The city has the authority to take the funds from the EDA, but the EDA board would prefer they did not. The council and EDA board will be discussing this in the coming month.  

Pipestone County Commissioner Dallas Roskamp was at the meeting to give the council an update on activities in the county. You can read about many of those items in the county board article in this edition. 

The next city council meeting is on Wednesday, June 8, at 7 p.m.