The city of Albert Lea is considering two consulting companies to conduct a study on whether the community would support a half-percent local option sales tax, which would be used to create a fund to clean up Albert Lea’s lakes.

A study commissioned by the city council found that dredging Albert Lea Lake could cost $20,530,000 to $44,387,000. The city couldn’t fit an expense that large into its regular budget. Instead, some have supported a local-option sales tax to pay for the project.

The tax would take a half percent off every qualifying retail sale in the city and put it toward a fund. But to be able to do this, the city first must get permission from the state legislature. City Councilor Randy Erdman, who led a campaign for a local-option sales tax two years ago, says the state legislature wants proof that the community would approve the tax in a referendum. So having a study on public support for the project was the next logical step for the council, Erdman said.

The two companies, Cincinnatus and Decision Resources Ltd., are both Minnesota-based companies that have experience with similar projects.

According to City Manager Paul Sparks, Cincinnatus would provide focus groups that will help to find out where different demographic groups stand on the issue. That will give the city an idea about how to gain support for the project.

Cincinnatus would cost $21,525 to hire. Decision Resources would be $10,200.

&uot;Either one can do a survey and do a good job with it,&uot; Sparks said to the council Thursday night. He said Cincinnatus would probably have a more &uot;professional&uot; look to its final product and would also have the focus group information for further use.

&uot;Is it worth the cost difference? I’m not sure,&uot; he said.

The council spent $17,000 on the dredging survey, and still have nearly $10,000 left from the fund for that study.

Randy Erdman said he thinks the project is too big to take shortcuts.

&uot;It’s not something we need to be cheap on,&uot; he said, pointing out that dredging the lake has been an issue since the 1930s. &uot;If we want to solve this problem, this is part of the solution.&uot;

(Contact Peter Cox at peter.cox @albertleatribune.com or 379-3439.)