The South Haven City Council took another step last week toward constructing a community building to replace the old city hall. Council members voted at their monthly meeting Tuesday, April 7, to hire Miller Architects and Builders of St. Cloud for $5,000 to do a schematic design for the proposed building. That’s expected to produce a cost estimate by July. The council has been looking into building a community center-city hall on the same Main Street site where the aging and deteriorating city hall now sits. But it hasn’t yet made a decision to go ahead. Kurt Helgeson, who’s been doing a feasibility study and is a member of a council committee on a new structure, recommended Miller as a firm that has a history of building good projects in small towns. A schematic design is the initial part of a construction project that identifies a building’s major functions, what will be in it and the materials that will be used, he said in an interview. Then a preliminary cost estimate is done from the schematic design. Helgeson told the council the design will take four to six weeks, and the city will have a project cost figure by July 1. If the building goes ahead and Miller were hired as the project architect, they would oversee construction as well, he said. Helgeson also told the council he’s continuing to submit material aimed at qualifying for a grant-low-interest loan program from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development branch. A USDA official has said South Haven has a good chance of qualifying based on the average income of city residents, he said. The city could receive a grant of up to $50,000 plus a loan up to a total of $450,000. South Haven’s application for a Small Cities Development Program grant from the state of Minnesota was turned down last year, but Helgeson said he’s investigating the possibility of applying again this year. He said a public hearing would be held on the project after a grant or other source of funding has been secured. A decision on USDA funding might be made late this summer, Helgeson said. If everything fell into place and the project goes ahead, he said, fall would be the earliest that construction could start. The council also voted to do a land survey of the site up to a cost of $2,000 and to authorize the committee to choose a firm that will determine whether the old city hall is eligible to be on the National Register of Historic Places. Mayor John Lemke called that requirement "one of those stupid things, but you have to go along with the law." In other action, the council: n Received a visit from Wright County sheriff’s deputy Grant Eldred, who patrols South Haven on the afternoon shift. "I’m having a very hard time finding a good speeder right now," he said. "It’s tough trying to find somebody to stop." But he said deputies will keep the pressure on. Drivers have been paying more attention to the 30 mph speed limit on Highway 55 after the sheriff’s department stepped up patrols in February and began concentrating on speeding. That followed council member Tony Stanley’s repeated complaints about speeding and a visit by Sheriff Gary Miller last month. Miller said he would make sure deputies drop in on council meetings to find out what officials want. n Heard a report from Stanley on his research into the possibility of drilling another drinking water well. Stanley concluded that even with federal economic stimulus money and a low-interest loan from the state, the annual cost of a new well would be $40 to $45 per home. "I don’t see it being feasible," he said. "We’re just not ready now."
