Elk River Star News

By Joni Astrup

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, visited Otsego and Elk River last week to hear more about local infrastructure and economic development priorities and to discuss federal funding recently approved for two key local projects. Otsego is getting $3.4 million for a drinking water treatment project and Sherburne County will receive $7 million to help fund construction of a proposed $48 million interchange project in Zimmerman. Klobuchar helped secure funding for both projects.

Sherburne County ‘thrilled’ to get $7M toward Zimmerman interchange

Sherburne County Board Chair Lisa Fobbe said they are “thrilled” about a new $7 million federal appropriation for the Highway 169-County Road 4 interchange in Zimmerman.

Fobbe made her comments during a Thursday, Jan. 5, meeting with U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, held at the Sherburne County Government Center in Elk River.

The Zimmerman interchange project is estimated to cost $48 million. In addition to the new $7 million in federal money for the project, Sherburne County also has $5 million allocated in local option sales tax for the interchange. Officials will seek $36 million from either or both state and federal sources for the balance of the project.

“This is just a great start and we appreciate it so much,” Fobbe told Klobuchar.

During the meeting with the senator, Sherburne County Public Works Director Andrew Witter outlined the need for an interchange in Zimmerman, noting that the Highway 169-County Road 4 intersection is ranked by the Minnesota Department of Transportation as the second most unsafe intersection in central Minnesota. There were 101 crashes there in a five-year period between 2015 and 2019.

There are all sorts of safety issues, he said, including long traffic backups, people driving on the shoulder and intermingling of pedestrians with traffic moving at highway speeds.

It also will be the last signalized intersection in a 75-mile stretch between Interstate 94 in Rogers and Mille Lacs Lake once the project currently underway in Elk River to turn Highway 169 into a freeway is finished.

Klobuchar told them that they have a strong argument based on safety and the number of crashes.

County officials, meanwhile, also touched on a number of other topics with Klobuchar, including Interstate 94 and Highway 10 connectivity, a new 430-acre county park near Big Elk Lake, the need for broadband infrastructure, a Google data center proposal, and the Sherco power plant in Becker.

Besides Fobbe and Witter, those attending the meeting included Sherburne County Commissioner Raeanne Danielowski, Zimmerman Mayor Nick Stay, Zimmerman City Administrator Randy Piasecki, Sherburne County Administrator Bruce Messelt and members of Klobuchar’s staff.

Otsego awarded $3.4M to improve drinking water

Otsego will get $3.4 million in federal money for drinking water improvements in the city.

“We’re really excited about this project,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, told Otsego officials during a Thursday, Jan. 5, meeting at Otsego City Hall.

Mayor Jessica Stockamp said it’s a very important project and Scott Schaefer, of the water consulting engineering firm AE2S, said it will improve the drinking water quality.

City Administrator and Finance Director Adam Flaherty explained in an email that the project will consist of adding water filtration to an existing well pump house for removal of manganese, iron and radium to meet drinking water standards.

The city’s current drinking water system consists of water from wells treated with chemicals to control bacteria, control corrosion, and ensure fluoridation. Contaminants including radium, manganese and iron are currently not removed. This project will reduce manganese levels below the Health-Based Value of 100 µg/L, as well as radium and iron below primary and secondary standards, respectively, Flaherty said.

Total cost of the drinking water improvement project is currently estimated at $4.25 million, he said. The balance of the project costs beyond the $3.4 million in federal funding will be paid with funds from the city’s Water Utility Fund, which gets its funding primarily from user charges and development connection fees.

In addition to Stockamp, Flaherty and Schaefer, those attending the meeting with Klobuchar also included Kurt Neidermeier, Otsego’s utility manager; Nancy Zeigler, of AE2S; and members of Klobuchar’s staff.

After discussing the drinking water improvement project, Klobuchar quizzed city officials about what is happening in Otsego.

Klobuchar was told the city’s population is now approximately 22,976 and Otsego is the largest city in Wright County. Formerly a township, Otsego became a city in 1990.

Stockamp said the city is growing from the outside in, with development along the Highway 101 and Interstate 94 corridors.

Flaherty said over the last three years Otsego has seen 1,100 to 1,200 new residential starts. Multi-family development has also come to the city in the last few years.

“We didn’t have apartments until a few years ago,” Stockamp added.

Close to a million square feet of industrial warehouse space has been added in the city over the last couple of years as well, Flaherty said.

“It’s all bringing in tax base and employment opportunities,” he said.

And, he said, Otsego’s retail and commercial sector is really starting to take off.

The mayor told Klobuchar that Otsego is unique in that there are three school districts and five ZIP codes in the city.

For her part, Klobuchar told a few stories about her days at the U.S. Capitol, including how senators occasionally work through the night despite the advanced age of some of the members.

“As my husband says, there’s a bunch of them that are of the age that they shouldn’t be pulling all nighters,” Klobuchar joked.

Klobuchar holding a series of meetings

Klobuchar helped secure funding for the projects in Zimmerman and Otsego through the Congressionally Directed Spending, or CDS, process.

According to the senator’s office, she has been actively involved in securing federal funding commitments to enable projects benefiting communities across the state through the CDS process. She considered project proposals and advocated for funding in close coordination with leaders from across the state.

The meetings she held last week with Otsego and Sherburne County officials were part of a series of meetings Klobuchar has been holding to hear more from communities about their infrastructure and economic development priorities.

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