By: Jacob Sexton — [email protected]
Humboldt, IA — A special city council meeting was called to order on Tuesday night to discuss the downtown project that is getting the finishing touches before finally breaking ground.
A loan agreement not to exceed 1.7 million on the project was unanimously approved to lead off the meeting. The other loan agreement was a refinancing from 2011 on city projects which brought the number 2.2 million and saved the city 25,000 dollars. Voting then proceeded on a few resolutions with 2 being of note as the contract bid was lowered for the downtown project with Sande Construction of Humboldt being the low bid of 1,356,827.84 which also factored in the addition of new lights being added to the project which was passed unanimously.
When the voting came to finalize the project, Ward 3 member Joel Goodell was the only one to voice opposition to the project even though he did say he was for downtown construction. The final vote was 3-1 in favor to approve with Goodell being the only one to vote nay. John Sleiter, Jim Myers, and Kirk Whittlesey all voted aye. Mike Worthington was not available to be present to vote. All construction being done includes new street lights, crosswalks, repair existing buildings where the canopy is attached, and the biggest emphasis being new sidewalks that stretch from the front of all builds to around the sides on the curbs.
The Humboldt downtown construction could see small work being done in the coming weeks with major work starting after July 4th.