The Lakes Foundation of Albert Lea is heading up an effort to extend the city’s half-cent sales tax another five years.

The proceeds of the local option sales tax, approved by more than 80 percent of voters in 2005, are used for lake improvements under the Shell Rock River Watershed District. The goal is to ultimately dredge Fountain Lake.

Lakes Foundation President Laura Lunde said when the tax was initially approved, it was slated to last 10 years or until it had collected $15 million. However, by the end of the 10 years — in March 2016 — the tax is only projected to have generated between $12 million and $12.5 million.

“We had a recession basically right in the middle of our sales tax budget, so to speak,” Lunde said.

The proposal calls for the tax to expire once the $15 million threshold is met — or at the end of five years, whichever comes first — at which time organizers plan to call for a formal referendum to renew the tax.

Lunde said the extension is supported by the state reviser’s office, and a bill is ready to be introduced to both the state House and Senate.

“It’s so important that we move forward with cleaning up the lakes because we’ve determined at this point that the problem really rests with internal loading — what we’ve already done to our lakes, and not so much what’s coming into the lakes,” Lunde said.

The Watershed District in 2012 purchased a 2010 IMS 7012 HP 51-foot Versi hydraulic dredge for $340,000, along with the pipes, pumping and other equipment necessary to pump the dredge material away from the lake for $435,000.

It has purchased land that will be used as a staging area for the project and contracted out for preliminary engineering.

Watershed District officials are waiting to see whether the state will approve $7.5 million in bonding funds to go toward the $15 million dredging project.

She said many of the projects coming before the Legislature are to strengthen different cities’ identities. There are projects for civic centers and Destination Medical Center, to name a few.

“The lakes are our civic center,” she said.

The Lakes Foundation will come before the Albert Lea City Council on Monday asking for a letter of support for the extension.

Lunde said it is important to present to the Legislature that the project is a collaborative effort between the city, the watershed district, the lakes foundation and the Fountain Lake Sportsmen’s Club, among others.

Shell Rock River Watershed District Administrator Brett Behnke said the sales tax dollars have leveraged grants totaling $14.86 million for district improvement projects.