Royalton receives $900,000 for storm sewer infrastructure

 The Royalton City Council heard an update from James Robins with Robins Consulting that with the bonding bill passed in both the Senate and the House, Royalton was granted $900,000. It has been a long, but productive process, he said.

    The funds will be used to replace and upgrade the storm sewer drainage system along South Cedar Street in Royalton. Mayor Andrea Lauer said the storm sewer systems in that road are very outdated.

    Robins said the process for state participation in the long-planned 14-block Royalton infrastructure project began in late 2019 with a routine visit from state Rep. Ron Kresha, R-Little Falls. When Royalton officials told him about their concerns that the costs of the major project would put extreme stress on the city’s finances, Kresha said he would put together a bill to be introduced early in the 2020 Legislative Session.

    “However, the city had missed a mid-2019 deadline to submit its plan to Minnesota Management and Budget were more than $5 billion in requests had been earlier submitted. Many of those requests had been on hold for several years,” Robins said.

    Sen. Paul Gazelka, R-Nisswa authored HF 2929 and its companion bill SF 3284, which would allocate $1.918 million from the Public Facilities Authority to the Royalton Project, while Robins continued to work with Lauer, the City Council, and other administrative staff to assist with the legislative process. In an effort to raise visibility and gain bipartisan support, Robins said co-authors were sought out, more specifically senators Andrew Mathews, R-Milaca and David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm and representatives Shane Mekeland, R-Clear Lake and Dan Wolgamott, DFL-St. Cloud. The bill was later heard in early March by the House Capital Investment Committee where Lauer also testified.

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