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To the Albert Lea Youth Baseball Association.

Hats off to the Albert Lea Youth Baseball Association, which donated $50,000 this year toward improvements at Snyder Fields.

The Albert Lea City Council accepted the donation at its meeting Monday. The funds are expected to cover building materials and benches for new dugouts and supplement the almost $230,000 the city is spending for new fencing, dugouts and water lines.

These fields are highly utilized, not only by local teams but also by teams from out of the area who come to the city for tournaments. These improvements will help make games at the complex a better experience for both players and viewers.

To the Albert Lea girls’ hockey team.

We’re excited to see the success of the Albert Lea girls’ hockey team thus far this season, especially after hearing that the team won its game Thursday night against Owatonna — the first time for the Tigers to defeat the Huskies in over 15 years.

The team is coming off of two years in a row representing Section 1A at the state hockey tournament, and we have strong hopes for them to make a return appearance this year.

To the Senate Capital Investment Committee’s visit to Albert Lea this week.

Thanks to the Senate Capital Investment Committee for taking time to visit Albert Lea this week to hear about the city of Albert Lea’s request for $40 million in bonding funds to go toward the city’s new wastewater treatment plant.

The request is part of an overall $80 million project to upgrade the plant, which was built in 1981. In addition to the plant having aging infrastructure, the city is facing new regulations from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for phosphorus removal.

The plant processes an average of 4 million gallons of wastewater per day,

City leaders have said without state funding, sewer rates will triple for residents from about $40 a month to $120 a month on average. Even with state funding, sewer rates will probably double. Not receiving the state support would be a huge blow to the community.

We encourage both the House and Senate Capital Investment Committees to support this project, which is critical to the community, and to include the full request when they formulate their bonding proposals.

The price has already risen dramatically in recent years as the project has been planned and the city works to try to attain the money to make it happen. We are afraid it will only continue to rise if the city is forced to wait another year to obtain more funds. This should not fall on the backs of taxpayers.

The committee also heard a request for a project in Clarks Grove and a presentation from Semcac during their time in Freeborn County.