Council presents Waseca officers with special acknowledgments

The Waseca city council meeting took place on Tuesday, June 16.

 

During the June 16 meeting of the Waseca city council, police chief Kris Markeson presented recognitions and commendations. First came a “Meritorious Service” award for four officers who Markeson said “demonstrated great tenacity and devotion to duty” during a recent incident in town. The four honorees were officer Gage Horn and detectives Nick Wellman and Andrew Harren of the Waseca force, and officer Cade Madden of Chaska. Each individual received a plaque and handshakes of congratulations and thanks.

 

Young Waseca residents Alice, 14, and Arlo, 13, were presented with the Waseca Police Department’s Young Hero Award for their brave roles in the incident. 

 

Arik Matson attended the meeting to present the “Officer Arik Matson Legacy Service Award.” Last year’s honoree was Detective Courtney Hartle. Receiving the 2026 award was patrol officer Thomas Bendorf. Bendorf has been with the department for five years, and was singled out for his “cooperative spirit, community engagement and a willingness to improve.”

 

City manager Carl Sonnenberg presented a quick summary regarding progress at the Clearwater Preserve on behalf of developing company Deerpath LLC. Sonnenberg shared that there will be 21 new single-family lots located around two cul-de-sacs. Each new lot will be priced at $64,900 and will be located between north of 11th Ave NW and east of 10th St. NW. They are single family 1400 square feet, twin homes. This will not include manufactured homes or modular homes (factory or built off-site). This item will be voted on during the July 7 meeting.

 

The council passed a vote authorizing Sonnenberg to execute and complete final documents for replacing switchgear equipment at a municipal electric substation.. This is a multi-year project contracted through the Hooper Corporation costing around $637,000.

 

The council granted a Liquor License Premise Extension for the American Legion, on both July 25 and August 29.   

 

Mayor Zimmerman will be filling in as the Economic Development Authority president for the remainder of this year.

 

The new Caribou Coffee will open on June 30 with a grand opening July 8 at 10 a.m. Lucia’s Cocina has also broken ground for her new location next to the old Kwik Trip.

 

During the meeting’s public comment session, Ben Postin and Verity Rose spoke on the skate park in Waseca. After speaking with a city worker, Postin was told the asphalt will be complete by next week and wanted to update the council.

 

The Waseca Waterpark saw over 600 visitors on opening weekend, this is the park’s nineteenth year of operation. Mankato’s Spring Lake Park and the Geneva Community Pool are closed this year.

 

Councilwoman Schroeder commented on how clean Clear Lake Park was after the Take a Kid Fishing event. She said there were no wrappers and how nice it was to walk through such a clean space afterwards. She also thanked the Parks Department for cleaning up the parks and dead fish on the shore of Clear Lake after a fish die-off believed to have been caused by unusually warm spring water temperatures.

 

Councilman Ebertowski expressed apologies for missing the last council meeting, but explained his son, Archer James Ebertowski was born. According to Ebertowski, “He’s happy and healthy, the wife is also happy and healthy.”

 

Councilman Conrath announced the Firefighters Relief Association fish fry will be at 4 p.m. on Friday, June 27. 

 

Mayor Zimmerman said about the upcoming Fourth of July Celebration, “Two hundred and fifty years of one of the greatest social experiments in the world. Be safe and have fun this year. Learn what it took for us to be here.”