BENSON -- The Benson City Council approved an agreement Monday involving the Minnesota Department of Transportation state aid grant that will be used on the city's new airport hangar and fueling system.
According to Benson City Manager Rob Wolfington, the agreement is a 95 percent grant on an airport improvement project of about $350,000. Wolfington said a small part of the grant is a state appropriation and the majority is federal.
Wolfington said he thinks construction of the new hangar and fueling system may already have been started. If not, he said, the projects will be mobilized next week.
The city will fund its 5 percent of the project through its capital outlay budget.
Also Monday, the council approved the purchase of equipment designed to read utility meters electronically. Many communities, Wolfington said, still have to send personnel out every month to read meters manually. The system the city has in the works will send that information electronically to the city's billing software and allow the city to check meters whenever needed.
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Wolfington said the city has been installing the equipment itself and is about halfway through complete installation of Benson. The recent equipment purchase was marked at $36,595.
One last item the city tried to tackle but postponed to a later date was the bidding process for a vehicle exhaust removal system for the city's fire station.
After receiving a grant from the Department of Homeland Security for the estimated $83,000 exhaust removal system, a little confusion in the bidding process was confronted involving changed bids by a couple contractors. As a result of the confusion, the council pushed the bid awarding back.
The issue is expected to be solved during the next regular meeting, Wolfington said.
In other business Monday:
- The council will open bidding Sept. 24 for the sale of a used rescue vehicle the city owns. The vehicle is a 1980 pickup truck used usually for car accidents. Wolfington said the city hopes another local fire department in the area will buy the rescue vehicle.
- The council turned down a request from local merchants to transform a section of Utah Avenue from one-way to two-way traffic.
After Benson did its highway project involving U.S. Highway 12, the direction of Utah Avenue was changed from eastbound to westbound because of numerous accidents at 12th Street and Highway 12. Over the last couple years, Wolfington said, occasionally people still turn the wrong way onto Utah Avenue.
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At the meeting, a motion was made to make Utah Avenue two-way traffic from 12th to 13th streets. The motion was turned down by the council -- even though it was considered feasible by the Planning Commission. Wolfington cited delivery parking and two-way street parking as being main reasons for the council's disapproval of the motion.
