The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners approved resolutions supporting two major state bonding requests Tuesday morning.

The projects are for the development of the abandoned Union Pacific Railroad line from Albert Lea to Hartland and infrastructure improvements in the Stables area.

The Stables project, included in Gov. Mark Dayton’s $1.4 billion list of public construction projects, was approved by the commissioners by a 4-1 vote.

District 2 Commissioner Dan Belshan was the lone dissenting vote.

The project includes extending the sanitary sewer and water to the Stables area north of Albert Lea due to failing septic systems for residents living there. The Stables area includes 60 homes.

Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever, said the $2.8 million project would include $1.3 million in bonding, $850,000 for assessments for property owners and up to $300,000 each for Freeborn County and the city of the Albert Lea.

Commissioners voted that Freeborn County be responsible for paying no more than $300,000 toward the project.

Belshan said he was hesitant of the county committing $300,000 toward the project in lieu of its taking over costs for the dispatch center from the city last year and advocated placing the county’s proposed share on the commission’s next meeting agenda.

The abandoned Union Pacific Railroad line would be developed into the Brent Tree Trail, a 12-mile stretch from Madison Avenue in Albert Lea to near Hartland.

The funding would be for a bridge on the west side of Albert Lea, other bridge rehabilitation, site grading and plan design.

District 5 Commissioner Mike Lee said the trail would provide more opportunity for people to use Freeborn County’s resources and it would bring more tourism to Albert Lea.

The Union Pacific Railroad abandoned the stretch in 2011. Freeborn County was notified they were going to abandon the route and obtained two grants totalling $1.1 million to purchase it.

The county closed on the purchase in March 2015.

Kluever presented the request in front of the Minnesota Senate Capital Investment Committee in October.

The 2016 legislative session begins March 8.