Kasson council approves 2025 projects

Three 2025 projects were advanced at the February 26 Kasson City Council meeting totaling almost $9,000,000. The three projects are a new water tower south of Highway 14, new streetlights for downtown, and street improvements in the southwest quadrant of town north of Highway 14 and south of Second Street.
The SW portion of Kasson north of HWY 14 is slated to receive street and utility upgrades costing $5,600,000. Households within this area are slated to be assessed around $800,000 for the project, working out to $9,030 per residential unit. This represents approximately 30% of the street portion of the project.
Councilman Paul Johnson expressed a desire to see that percentage reduced. Johnson felt it was better to have everyone pay a little over time than to have large sums paid by property owners when improvements occur in their area. Johnson suggested decreasing the assessment to 25% for this project and phasing out assessments over time.
Mayor Dan Eggler was concerned about changing the assessment mid-project since a letter had already been sent out with the assessment amounts. Councilman Brian Wempner thought lowering the assessment would be unfair to those who had paid their assessments on previous projects. Still, he agreed when Johnson said, “I would prefer spreading it [the cost] out rather than having a special assessment.”
A public hearing on the assessments was approved and is scheduled for March 26. After the hearing, the council will make a final determination of assessment amounts.
The Water tower project was approved at the meeting and will cost Kasson taxpayers $2,845,000. The tower will improve pressure south of Highway 14 and provide additional capacity to the city’s water system to support a population of up to 14,000 residents. A little over 3,000 residents could live south of HWY 14 so long as no high-water-usage businesses were built there.
The third project replaces the street lights downtown with a mix of intersection and sidewalk lighting. The cost of the project is currently estimated to be $800,000. City administration sought council input on style and type of lighting. Administration will bring recommendations based on the feedback they received from the council at a future meeting.
During the City Administrator’s report, a fourth potential future project was presented. The Arena Board is considering a $15.6 million expansion of Dodge County Ice Arena. While the project is only in the evaluation phase, detailed plans and drawings have been drafted. Dodge County owns the property and Kasson operates it.
In the roundtable discussion at the end of the meeting, Councilman Brian Wempner brought up the city’s snow emergency policy. When Wempner received a parking ticket, he said he realized that the definition of a snow emergency was vague. He suggested a review of the snow emergency policy at a future meeting.