Watershed plan under consideration

Haley Byron, Waseca County's water resource specialist, visited the board of county commissioners at their February 7 meeting. She presented a draft of the comprehensive watershed management plan for the Le Sueur River, which Waseca County is working jointly on with several other counties as part of the statewide “One Watershed, One Plan” initiative. The draft is  in its review period until Feb. 18. Estimated costs for the plan over the first ten years come to $29,602,100, which is about $5,000 more than available funding. This means the body in charge of the implementation will need to compete for grant money to make up the difference. The plan calls for the wide majority of the money spent on the watershed to go to implementation of best practices, with smaller amounts devoted to further studies on the watershed and outreach initiatives. The full draft is available in the “Planning and Zoning” section of the Waseca County website. A public hearing on the plan will be held at 5 p.m. March 24 in Pemberton. County commissioners may lodge a formal comment on the plan prior to its implementation, but have not yet done so. Byron told the commissioners that she is pleased with the plan and believed all issues important to Waseca County had been adequately addressed. Commissioner Dee Malterer, who chairs the board created for the management of the Le Sueur River watershed, also stated that she is prepared to move forward with the plan as it stands.

Byron brought two other matters before the board. First was a contract for watercraft inspection services in Waseca County with the company WaterGuard, which served Waseca County for the first time last year. Prior to that, the county hired inspectors directly. Byron stated WaterGuard was incredibly easy to work with for county staff, and that the inspectors she's had the opportunity to meet also seem pleased with their employer–which she considers important. The contract approved by the board covers the hiring and training of five inspectors who will work 600-800 hours over the course of the year at Clear, St. Olaf, and Reeds Lakes and has a maximum invoice amount of $23,200. Last year, WaterGuard billed under their maximum contracted amount. Second, she asked the board to formally cancel a cost-share contract which was approved last April with a landowner in Waseca County, as the landowner changed the parameters of the project. Reportedly, the processes necessary for the cost-share had become so cumbersome that the landowner chose to make changes to the project knowing the cost-share contract would be voided.

Contracts were awarded for three maintenance and improvement projects at county-owned or -managed property. Mohs Contracting of Owatonna will be doing work to replace eight windows from 1975 at the Courthouse Annex building; their bid for the contract was $169,554. The lowest by far, this was still about $35,000 over the estimate given about eighteen months ago by county engineers; Brian Tomford said in his presentation to the board that the increase is due to inflation. WW Blacktop, Inc. of Mankato will be carrying out pavement improvements at south side of the fairgrounds, near the buildings. Their bid was $60,011.50, about 30% under the estimates of county engineers; the project is scheduled to be completed well ahead of the 2023 County Fair. Twenty-three miles of county highway will be treated with seal coat this year, a number on par with previous years. The work will be done by Scott Construction, from Lake Delton, WI, who Jim Kollar says he has worked with before and had positive experiences. Their bid was $468,065.57, which is nearly 15% under the estimates from county engineers. All three projects had allotments in the 2023 budget.

Judy Hiller of the county's records department received permission to purchase a new Land Records Assureon device, which is used in partnership with Dodge County for information sharing and backup. The machine is available at a discounted price of $22,222.50 if purchased before March 31, which the board will allow to be paid from the compliance fund.

Kollar also received approval from the board to begin the process of using Eminent Domain, which allows government bodies to purchase private properties for public use without the owners' consent so long as a fair price is paid; the process will be used to gain an easement for a bridge replacement project taking place this year on County State Access Highway 5. The project requires three easements on private properties; two property owners have agreed, but the third has been non-responsive. The project is receiving federal funds, so the plan cannot be formally made and approved until the county has the right of way to complete it, and doing so without easement on this property has been deemed impossible. After sixty days' notice and multiple attempts to contact the landowner, the county is beginning court proceedings. The process is reportedly a quick one once the landowner is served court papers, and Kollar says if the project is delayed at all it is more likely to be due to shipping materials than this.

At the recommendation of county administrator Michael Johnson, the board approved the creation of an official Land and Water Resources department under the umbrella of County Administration. Over 90% of the land in Waseca County is agricultural, and the board has recently had a heavy focus on drainage systems, so Johnson says that formalizing a department makes sense despite the general efforts to consolidate and simplify departments within the county government. The department will be formed from existing staff with roles related to land and water management, so will have no fiscal impact. An organizational chart will be created dynamically as the employees in the department work together and find the best working strategies.