Purchase agreements for 3 properties approved

 

The Albert Lea City Council awarded a $7.96 million contract Monday for construction of the planned Albert Lea fire station.

The contract awarded to Owatonna-based company Mohs Contracting was lower than the engineer’s estimate of $8.1 million.

The council received 10 bids for the project. Initial bids ranged from $8.05 million from Faribault-based Met-Con Construction to $8.8 million from Rochon Corp. The bid from Mohs Contracting was initially $8.06 million.

After the city looked at further reductions in the bid and deducted the cost of solar panels from the bids, the bid from Mohs Contracting came in lower than the bid from Met-Con Construction.

First Ward Councilor Rich Murray encouraged North Mankato-based Brunton Architects and the city to continue to look for project savings.

Councilors also approved purchase agreements for three properties east of the Freeborn County Government Center for the project: a $45,000 agreement for property at 408 Elizabeth Ave.; a $50,000 agreement for property at 411 Newton Ave.; and a $52,000 agreement for property at 412 Elizabeth Ave.

The council still needs to approve purchase agreements in association with the project at 220 E. College St., 406 Elizabeth Ave., 410 Elizabeth Ave., 415 S. Newton Ave. and Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services property at 417 S. Newton Ave. and remaining parcels on the block.

Albert Lea City Manager Chad Adams said purchase agreements for all “but maybe one” of the rest of the properties are “very close,” and he hopes most remaining purchase agreements come before the council Dec. 20.

Adams said the city is negotiating and discussing possible cost sharing for the planned emergency management center in the new fire station with Freeborn County. He hopes to have more information on that possibility within approximately one month.

In other action, the council:

• Supported a Blazing Star Trail cooperative agreement between the state of Minnesota and city of Albert Lea to allow for the rehabilitation and redevelopment of portions of an approximately 3-mile segment of Blazing Star Trail between Albert Lea and Myre-Big Island State Park.

Adams said $200,000 in project funding “is original bonding dollars that were dedicated to the project but had not been spent.”

He noted the deadline to spend the funds was the end of the calendar year, and the only way to preserve project money was by approving the agreement Monday.

“Otherwise, the $200,000 would have gone back to the state for other trail projects,” Adams said.

• Approved a conditional use permit for Hammer Field Complex improvements and expansion after an exit initially planned for use only by emergency vehicles onto Hammer Road was changed to include other vehicles, said Albert Lea Mayor Vern Rasmussen Jr. There was previously only an exit onto Bridge Avenue.