The Shell Rock River next to the former Mexico Lindo restaurant could get a facelift — and a new restaurant.

Tom Leland, a commercial broker and consultant with Gateway Commercial, asked the Shell Rock River Watershed District board Tuesday if it is interested in a beautification and renovation project for a section of the channel that runs between Fountain and Albert Lea lakes.

Leland, on behalf of the family that owns the site, said a national chain restaurant is interested in the site and a renovation, including a bike trail, landscaping and making the riverbank more accessible for fishing.

“There’s so many people that walk and bike down in that area, it just makes sense,” he said.

The proposed project would incorporate 50 feet of land east of the restaurant building. Leland suggested creating a bike path from the Mexico store the moved waste.

The cell should be completed this fall, Parenteau said. After the cell is complete then preparatory work can begin to excavate and remove a half million yards of waste and contaminated material from Edgewater Park.

The waste is planned to be moved in the winter months to contain and control the odor as much as possible, Parenteau said.

An informational meeting for the public was held a few months ago where residents near the landfill site voiced their concerns. Parenteau said public concerns revolve around the possible noise, dust and odor that could occur during the waste transfer.

After the waste is transferred to its new location at the city transfer station, construction crews will be back in the spring to do closure and restorative work at Edgewater Park. Final closure work on the new cell will be done at that time, Abrams said.

Parenteau said there isn’t yet a clear vision for the end result of the area. The basic plan, he said, is to restore the road on the south end of Edgewater Park close to the existing grades of the road now.

The site near the road where the waste is buried will be lower after the excavation, he said, and culverts will have to be installed. The area would lose some side slope and will be 14 feet lower than it is now, Parenteau said.

There is a park pavilion near the excavation site, according to Parenteau, that may get rebuilt with the project. The pavilion has sustained some damages due to settling of the land, he said.

The city is considering rebuilding the North Edgewater Park pavilion near the boat ramp, Parenteau said. Based on recent bids — which had to be rejected recently because of incorrect information regarding awarding of bids — the project could come in well under the previous estimate, so there might be extra money for restoration work and rebuilding the pavilion, he said.

The area would be grated and seeded, then the watershed district would come in with any project it has planned, he said.

North Edgewater Park began as a railroad gravel pit in the 1940s, according to Abrams. The city later extracted the gravel and the site was then used for salvaging and demolishing railroad equipment. In 1956, the city used the area as a dump until the newer landfill was built in 1972, he said.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the landfill was a typical open burning dump, Abrams said. After the city closed the landfill at North Edgewater Park the watershed became involved with the dredging and covering the site with 14 feet of dredge material.

Over the next 10 years, Abrams said, the MPCA investigated the site looking at the extent of the chemical seepage problem and how widespread the contamination was.

The city approached the state Legislature in 2006 for funding to clean up the site. Edgewater Park doesn’t qualify for a closed landfill program through the MPCA, Abrams said, but the Legislature granted the MPCA $3.5 million to work with Albert Lea in cleaning up the site.

At that point Wenck Associates was hired to do preliminary engineering and found that $3.5 million wasn’t enough, he said. The city went back to the Legislature to request more money and didn’t receive it until 2008.

Wenck Associates finished the reclamation design and sent out for bids in early June. However, Abrams said the bids that came in could not be accepted. The project is currently out for bids. There was confusion in the bidding process so all were rejected and the bidding process started over to avoid a court battle, he said.

Some of the money has to be spent by June of 2009 or else the city would have to return to the Legislature.