The Minneapolis chapter of the International Aerobatics Club will be back at the City Airport this September for an aerobatics competition.

Tuesday, March 12, 2002

The Minneapolis chapter of the International Aerobatics Club will be back at the City Airport this September for an aerobatics competition. But in their approval, the city council limited the club’s practice times to just the weekend before the competition.

The club had originally asked for one weekend each month for practice sessions. Complaints about noise were the main reasons for the limits on practice time, according to council members.

This year’s contest is Sept. 6-8. The Minneapolis club has used the airport in Albert Lea for their annual aerobatics contest for the past few years.

In other business at Monday night’s meeting, the council:

n Postponed a decision on whether to close three railroad crossings – at Washington, Winter, and Water Streets – until March 25, to give residents and emergency services enough time to respond to the proposals. MnDOT is recommending to the city that those three streets be closed at the railroad crossings as part of a package of improvements in the city. The costs of street closures would be paid for by the state, and other improvements, like upgraded signals at some intersections, would require a 10 percent contribution from the city.

n Approved a downtown street overlay project and accepted the low bid of $562,361.95 from Ulland Bros. Construction Company. The low bid came in at 55 percent of the city’s original estimate.

n Set a public hearing for April 8 on a request to construct an alleyway running between Minnesota Street and Freeborn Avenue and Sheridan and Johnson streets. Dave Olson, the city engineer, was instructed to arrange a meeting between the city and residents of the neighborhood before the date of the public hearing.

n Approved a request from the Albert Lea Medical Center to hold a walk/run on the morning of June 15, 2002, in conjunction with the community’s Eddie Cochran Days commemoration.