Capital Bonding Project

City of Waseca Bonding Requests

Raw Sewage in Basements and Lakes Presentation

Minnesota House Capital Investment Committee

City of Waseca Bonding Requests—Water Tower & Sewer Improvements

Water Tower: Why Waseca, Why Now?

• $4.386 million is the request to help Waseca promote Business Expansion & Retention. Recent business closings include Brown Printing Company (Quad Graphics), Clear Lake Press, Corchran’s Metal Manufacturing, Delta Truck Body, Hy-Vee and Cash Wise grocery stores, Taco Johns, Dollar General, and just announced this year, Itron meter equipment manufacturer. 
• A new Water Tower will support the new Conagra (Birds Eye Foods) vegetable plant, repurposing within the closed Brown Printing Company (now MJ Properties), Highway 14 business development, and needed fire flow for residential growth and improved fire protection coverage for Conagra and MJ Properties multi-million-dollar properties.
• A new Water Tower allows for the decommissioning of the 1954 Water Tower at City Hall within the next 20 years (80-100 water tower useful life with good maintenance).
• Waseca is only #108 on the Public Priority List.  PFA has said we are NOT grant eligible.
• Water rates are now $33/month; $57/month without project funding; $43/month with funding.
• Waseca’s water rates are 122% higher than the combined average for Owatonna, Mankato, and Faribault.

Raw Sewage Pumping Into Lakes & Raw Sewage in Household Basements: Why Help Waseca?

• $5.427 million is our ask to help Waseca stop the chronic pumping raw sewage into lakes and stop flooding household basements with raw sewage due to excessive rainwater and snow melt overloading sewer pipes from leaky old pipes.  There are NO combined storm & sanitary sewers.
• No citizen or business deserves raw sewage in their homes and businesses.
• Waseca has been under an MPCA mandate to STOP illegal releases of raw sewage.
• Since 2015, Waseca has had to pump 37 million gallons of raw sewage into the environment.
• Our Hospital Sewer area is at the worst risk of flooding during rain events and spring snow melt.
• $10,000,000 has been spent over the past 10 years to fix problems, yet more problems persist.
• Conagra/Birdseye wants to partner with us to treat their vegetable wastewater year-round; we need existing sewer system capacity now that is taken up with rainwater & snow melt!
• Waseca is only #88 on the Public Priority List.  PFA has said we are NOT grant eligible.
• Sewer rates are now $53/month; $85/month without project funding; $72/month with funding.
• Our sanitary sewer rates are 171% higher than the combined average for the neighboring cities of Owatonna, Mankato, and Faribault.

Why not increase Waseca’s Tax Levy for these projects?

• 92% Tax Rate before the new 2022 Conagra plant, now at 78% with their new plant.  We granted Conagra tax abatement, so there is very limited tax revenue for 20 years!
• We must provide for Business Expansion Retention, not continue bleeding jobs!
• The tax levy currently pays over $180,000 annually for existing sewer infrastructure!

Randy L. Zimmerman, Mayor City of Waseca