By Cathy Hay

Replacing sidewalks, driveway approaches and guardrails, along with repairing storm sewers and culverts are just some of what people can expect next summer as the Minnesota Department of Transportation and Albert Lea Department of Public Works upgrade South Broadway.

Estimated to cost $5.87 million, South Broadway and parts of Main Street in Albert Lea are scheduled for resurfacing in 2015 with additional improvements such as new sidewalks and traffic lights. The Albert Lea City Council held a public hearing on the project at its meeting Monday and voted to proceed with it.

The project will include The construction area encompasses four miles of roads: Broadway from Main Street to south of the city limit, beyond the Interstate 35 overpass, along with Main Street from Euclid Avenue to Newton Avenue.

Broadway Avenue, from Main Street to Front Street, will also have its sidewalks enhanced with brick pavers, trees, decorative street lighting, trash cans, benches and flower pots. The last three items must be approved by the Minnesota Department of Transportation and paid completely by the city. This street-scaping continues the theme on North Broadway, according to Public Works Director Steve Jahnke.

The traffic lights at Newton and Main, Broadway and Main, and Broadway and Margaretha will also be replaced.

MnDOT is involved because South Broadway from Main southward is U.S. Highway 65, which is maintained by the state.

Tom Ferleman, who owns property at 1109 South Broadway, said he agrees that the street needs fixing but worries that flooding will still happen.

“I do not want a Band-aid effect,” he said.

Jahnke said it would cost millions more to fix the drainage problems. MnDOT received federal funds to resurface and make the sidewalks more handicap accessible, he said. The main intent is to preserve the street, which would cost much more to replace in the future if the department let it deteriorate further.

“As far as fixing the drainage, this project will not do that,” Jahnke said.

The state is paying for all of the resurfacing and part of the cost for sidewalks and other items. The rest will be paid by the city and property owners. The proposed assessments are for 20 percent of the first six feet of the sidewalk width and 50 percent for any width greater than 6 feet. For parking lanes, 40 percent of the cost is proposed to be assessed to property owners. Because the average assessment is less than $2,500, city staff recommends a payback period of five years on property taxes.

The project schedule calls for:

Early 2015, hold a neighborhood meeting.

Early 2015, authorize an agreement with the state and bidding of the project.

July 2015, start construction.

October 2015, finish construction.

Broadway will be closed to through traffic from East Front Street to Main Street for about three weeks next summer, with a detour from East Front Street to Garfield Street.

When doing maintenance in the future, the city will consider adding amenities such as bike lanes and trees to Broadway south of Front Street to make the area more attractive. City councilors urged staff to start planning for these amenities so they can be done when funding becomes available.

City Manager Chad Adams agreed, but added, “We cannot postpone this project another year or we will lose the funding.”

In other business Monday, the City Council:

Voted to continue the school-police liaison program with an Albert Lea police officer assigned to Albert Lea Area Schools. Through this program, officers develop a closer relationship with students and staff, helping prevent juvenile delinquency, respond quicker to threats to people and property, and follow up in investigations, according to Adams.

The program also promotes a positive image of police officers, the department as a whole, and the law enforcement profession. Both the school district and city will share the cost of providing an officer assigned to the schools. The total annual cost for this position, including salary and benefits, is about $99,000.

Continued the city’s participation in the South Central Drug Investigation Unit, with no changes to the current contract. The unit investigates drug and violent crime in its 12 members’ jurisdictions as part of a multi-agency approach. Member agencies commit to providing law enforcement personnel to work as unit agents in cooperative efforts to address common crime issues.

The drug unit is funded through grants from the state and a small local agency match. A new grant period starts Jan. 1 and the unit has again been awarded an operating grant for 2015. Minnesota requires all participating agencies to reaffirm their participation in the grant. The Albert Lea Police Department budget contains the local cash match amount.

Approved changes in the final plat for the St. John’s Lutheran Home development of a retirement community on the former site of the golf course between Edgewater Bay and Lakeview Boulevard. The amended plat includes new lot lines for the project that provide a distinction between the taxable and tax-exempt parcels, to coincide with the tax-increment-financing district and financing agreement.

Authorized spending $32,296 to replace seven-year-old equipment for the city’s cable channel 180, after a steady stream of equipment failures the past year. The new equipment will be compatible with Charter Communications’ upgrade to high definition and will also increase programming capacity. The city’s cable channel, ALTV, shows meetings of the City Council, Freeborn County Board of Commissioners and Shell Rock River Watershed District Board of Directors. Once the new equipment is installed, the community calendar and other information will be back on the channel.

Accepted two carousel horses valued at $2,495 from Roger and Charlotte Wellner. They are on display in the Albert Lea Public Library. The council also accepted books for the library from the Golden K2 Kiwanis Club and memorial donations for programs and activities at the Albert Lea Senior Center.