04-03-2023 City Council Meeting Minutes

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City Council Minutes April 3,2023 Page 2 of 10 5.1. Public Hearing—Small Cities Development Program —Public Infrastructure Mayor Gardner opened the public hearing for the Small Cities Development Program—Public Infrastructure at 6:03 pm. Tim Houle and Gail Leverson from Widseth presented the Small Cities Development Program-Public Infrastructure to the Council. He said it is a required public hearing by one of the funding agencies, the small Cities Development Program,which is sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. He stated they are going to try and gather some input and respond to questions as best we can on this proposed wastewater improvement. Mr. Houle said the actual improvements they are talking about are the force main replacement and the rehabilitation of the main lift station. He said a third component is not part of this particular deed application but the Council previously approved Widseth to put together. He said it is a third wastewater pond and stated this may need to be a separate project or separately funded. Mr. Houle explained the current conditions of the project. He said the force main has an asbestos cement pipe six-inch diameter which was very common back when it was installed some fifty years ago and it connects the Gravdahl lift station or the main lift station to the stabilization cells or ponds. He said it is reaching the end of its service life and that there have been a couple of breaks recently but they were caught right away and in a convenient location to fix. He explained if the breaks would have been in a joint it is getting more difficult to find replacement parts to those areas as they age. He said the proposed improvement for the force main is to look at removing and replacing the force main either using PVC pipe or high-density polyethylene pipe. Mr. Houle said there's a couple of different pipe materials and a lot of the funding agencies want you to keep that open so you can get open and fair competition. Mr. Houle explained the improvements that should be made and the useful life of the components. Discussion ensued about the size of pipes and the proposed improvements for the lift station. Mr. Houle said they will look at upgrading the control system to newer monitoring. Gail Leverson explained that a public hearing is required with the Small Cities Development Program funding, and they need to address certain topics in the hearing. She stated Pequot Lakes has 2,166 residents at last count and although they don't all live in your urban wastewater area, they all do benefit because of the cost of the facilities and infrastructure is stretched out and they do benefit when they come to town. She stated they are using the facilities in town and doing business in town therefore they all benefit. She said the Small Cities Program is designed for cities that have more than 51% low to moderate income as per HUD standards and the City of Pequot Lakes is at 52.66% low to moderate income, so that would be a little over 1140 residents that meet that requirement.