Council extends farmland lease, approves engineering for well No. 3

By John McLoone

PRESCOTT – The Prescott City Council joined the School District of Prescott in funding a $30,000 plan to provide crosswalk signals along St. Croix Street at Malone Intermediate School and in front of Malone Elementary School. The city and school district will split the cost of the new signals, which allow pedestrians to push a button activating a warning light on a pedestrian crossing sign. As part of the project, the city will also take out the sidewalk on the north side of St. Croix Street in front of the Intermediate School. Sidewalk will then be installed on the opposite side of the street, so pedestrians aren’t crossing the driveways into the school parking lot. The cost for the city to install that sidewalk was projected at $14,000.

Each sign system costs $6,607, a memo from City Administrator Matt Wolf to the city council states.

“The system is designed that each side of the crosswalk has a sign with lights below them. When you approach the sign, you can push a button that causes the lights to flash to notify drivers that a pedestrian wishes to cross or is crossing. After a certain amount of time, the lights turn ou," Wolf wrote. "During discussions with stau, it was recom mended that there be three locations for these signs. One would be located at Saint Croix and Filkins Street, another at the Campbell and Saint Croix intersection, and the final one at the elementary school crosswalk on Campbell Street. Additionally, to prevent multiple crosswalks on Saint Croix and to serve as a collector for children coming from Monroe Street and Filkins Street, a sidewalk is proposed from Filkins Street to Campbell Street. This would allow children coming from those southern neighborhoods to get on the sidewalk to cross at Filkins Street to the school and remain on a sidewalk, so they don’t have to interact with the school’s park- ing lot travc." The city notified property owners where the new sidewalk will be located and received no negative feedback.

The City of River Falls has installed the systems near its schools, Wolf noted.

Sears property

The city’s newest addition to its business park will remain farmland for the time being.

The city council approved a lease with Jeu Most for $34,824 to lease the property

again this year. The city purchased the land, just east of the Eagle Ridge Business Park, last year and is working to find prospective businesses to develop the site.

“It is proposed with the revenue from the lease that it is used to begin to prepare the site for getting it shovel-ready. This would include items like getting it certified through the Golden Shovel program, having soil borings completed throughout the site and even- tually having it fully certified," Wolf said.

If a development were to be proposed before the end of the one-year lease, a prorated amount of money would be refunded to Most.

Well Number 3 project

The council approved a resolution to have the engineering firm CBS Squared Inc. pro vide design and construction oversight to install a reverse osmosis nitrate removal treatment plant at the city’s well No. 3, which was taken ou-line last year because of the pres ence of nitrates. The council also approved CBS Squared's proposal to submit an appli cation for the city into the state Safe Drinking Water Loan Program. Application cost will be $6,710.

The overall project costs for the reverse osmosis plant that the city utility will borrow for will be $1,023,175.50.

The city learned in September through a test result that nitrate levels in the well were in excess of levels for safe drinking water. The well was shut ou and the city switched to its wells 2 and 4 for all city water service.

The city considered installing a new well in the location of well 3 or other options. Of seven options, the city council decided in March to move forward with the reverse osmosis treatment plant. Reverse osmosis uses a partially permeable membrane to separate unwanted particles from drinking water.

This map shows where crosswalk signals will be installed along St. Croix Street at Malone Intermediate School. It also shows where a sidewalk will be added and one removed. Map courtesy of City of Prescott