Lansing Township residents won’t be voting on a proposed water and wastewater treatment improvement project.

Thursday, February 17, 2000

Lansing Township residents won’t be voting on a proposed water and wastewater treatment improvement project.

The Lansing Township Board will have to decide whether or not to proceed.

Frank Cesario of Pettipiece Cesario Development Solutions Inc. of Mankato discussed the proposed improvements, which township residents will, of course, have to pay for, but which they cannot by themselves decide.

Roger Levy, the township board chair, informed township residents both the township’s attorney and the Minnesota Association of Counties have verified a vote of the citizens would have no bearing on the decision of the township board members and would be nothing more than a "straw poll" instead of a binding referendum.

Cesario and Seth Peterson, a consulting engineer, answered questions Wednesday night at a public information meeting held at the Mower County Senior Citizens Center in Austin.

The site was a good choice because the large crowd would have overflowed the Lansing Township Hall.

Levy welcomed the residents and praised a questionnaire circulated by Dennis Wehrhan. "This questionnaire has some really terrific questions that do need to be answered," Levy said and that’s what Cesario and Peterson attempted to do.

According to Cesario and Peterson, the proposed water and wastewater improvements for the six target areas in Lansing Township will cost $4.83 million. Of that amount, $2.48 million would go for water improvements and $2.35 million for wastewater improvements.

If only the village of Lansing’s 94 households are targeted, the project would total $2.49 million with $1.28 million for water improvements and $1.2 million for wastewater improvements.

Individual system costs ranged from $6,000 to $7,000 for water and $8,000 to $12,000 for wastewater (mound system) for a total water and wastewater improvement price tag of $15,000.

Cesario and Peterson said the six target areas’ improvements could be financed with a $2.3 million affordable loan and $2.53 million in grant.

If the village of Lansing alone is targeted for the water and wastewater improvements, an affordable loan of $1.48 million and a U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development grant of $405,432 and another grant from the Small Cities Development Program for $600,00 would pay for it.

Currently, township residents have individual wells and septic systems. Many are in non-compliance because of the level of contaminants (nitrates) found in well water or septic systems that do not meet Mower County’s individual septic treatment ordinance.

Per-capita costs per system are expected to be:

n Total township system and all six targeted areas: Water, $9,196, and wastewater,

east of Austin. Cities can develop land within the city, and offer to sell it to interested parties at a savings and then regain a portion of the development costs. CRC would like to continue to grow from its staff of 52 employees, and garner a new permanent building on the proposed land purchase. McGarvey said CRC would like to build a 10,000-square-foot facility and possibly add 30 employees to its ranks.

"It was started here, it grew here and we would like to keep it here," McGarvey said. "We made a pledge to keep it here."

In other business, a presentation by Kenneth Hagen, a former district employee, was directed toward a request sent to the district in January regarding his wife’s plan to retire later this year. With the length of this year’s late teacher contract bargaining, the board was unclear whether or not a letter of retirement intent made its way to the administration before the new contract was ratified. A letter from Doris Hagen, asking to be allowed in under the previous contract’s compensation was presented to the board, was dated Jan. 3. The new contract was ratified days later.

Kenneth Hagen asked the board to consider drafting a memorandum of understanding that would allow the district to grandfather his wife, Doris Hagen, into the previous retirement plan, however, board members did not feel comfortable reaching a decision Wednesday night. A work session has been set up to further investigate the matter, and allow the district time to check legal avenues into the matter.

Opinions differed greatly among the board, eventually agreeing not to agree, and discuss solutions at a later time.