City of Wanamingo
Regular EDA Meeting
Monday December 8, 2025
6:00 P.M.
Wanamingo City Council Chambers
401 Main Street
Wanamingo MN
PRESENT: Annette Fritz, Brian Gudknecht, Rebecca Haugen, Ryan Holmes, Amy McDonald, and Josh Schaefer
ABSENT: Jim Kittelson
ALSO PRESENT: Michael Boulton and Laurie Musselman
Brian Gudknecht called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m.
Pledge of Allegiance followed.
ADOPT AGENDA: Fritz motioned, seconded by Schaefer to adopt. Approved 6-0-0.
CONSENT AGENDA: Fritz motioned, seconded by Haugen to approve. Approved 6-0-0.
PRESENTERS: None
NEW BUSINESS:
Wanamingo was awarded a Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development in October – 2025 Minnesota Small Cities Program Grant (SCDP) for $345,000. This will go toward rehabbing roughly twelve low-income homes.
Goodhue County brought back the fee reimbursement program for building permit and/or WAC/SAC. The program was initially funded through COVID/Stimulus related grants that were expended. The County received a grant for employment and tax base diversification. The County was eligible for the grant due to having a nuclear plant located within the County. The grant is for residential, commercial, and industrial projects. This is for new construction, additions to existing buildings, and industrial equipment installation. Residential limits are $5,000 per unit or $10,000 per project. Commercial/Industrial has a 10,000 per project limit. There is an application process for reimbursement once the project is completed.
OLD BUSINESS:
Administrator Boulton provided a 2024 Economic Development for the City. 2025 saw the best growth in both volume and valuation of building permits in the past five years. The growth is seen in both residential and commercial sectors. There is continued concern with inflation continue to hurt the local economy. Inflation, coupled with elevated Fed’s rates seem to keep growth slower than what the market can handle in the residential housing market. The commercial work, new homes, and valuation increases will increase the City of Wanamingo tax base.
Dollar General ($956,000) was a new major commercial building expansion in 2025. There were a couple of commercial small renovation projects such as Core824 (Former Kenyon-Wanamingo School Building), Jake’s Hometown Liquor (Bar), the Mead Johnson locker room ($273,000) and new affluent building project ($400,000), and four other projects. The Core824 project includes the formation of TIF 3-2. TIF 3-2 is a redevelopment project that will pay out a business subsidy on future property tax increment of no more than $525,000 over the next twenty-five (25) years.
In the residential side we have seen eight (8) new home building permits issued in 2025. The eight homes have a collective building permit valuation of $1,569,000. The eight (8) units are considered above average year of residential growth in Wanamingo. There have also been a number of new garages, decks, mechanical work, new windows/doors, re-roofing’s, and other home improvement building permits in 2025.
The 2022 Utility Improvements Project was finished up in 2025. The new well house punch list items were completed in 2025. The total cost of the project was $2.8 million (including new water tower). The City continues to work on reducing ground water inflow and infiltration. The City completed smoke testing all the manholes to check for leaks and cross connections in 2024. The program discovered two (2) broken manhole collars, nine (9) open pick holes on manhole covers, six (6) broken cleanouts, and one (1) open valve from equalization basin. City staff repaired six (6) damaged sewer line cleanouts that showed up in the smoke testing. The City completed the sump pump inspection program. The program helped to ensure that there are no illegal connections to the sanitary sewer system. The program discovered thirty-eight (38) failures, including eight (8) beaver systems to the sanitary, fourteen (14) flex hoses, nine (9) sump pumps into sanitary, and seven (7) pits with no sump pump. Corrections have made to nearly all of the failures. There are currently four (4) properties that either did not schedule an inspection or failed the initial inspection that are being charged a $100 monthly fee on the utility bill. The City completed a water service line shut-off valve GPS locating and material identification program required by the MPCA. The material identification program’s goal is to eventually replace all lead and galvanized piping. The mapping of water service valve locations helps to find easily shut-offs in case of emergencies. The City spent roughly $57,500 on repairing leaking water valves, replacing sewer services, installing a water service, asphalt patching, site restoration, and concrete replacement work in 2025. The City obtained a $3,000 grant for a new basketball hoop that was installed at Prairie Ridge Estates park in 2025. The City completed the street shop building rehab project in 2025. The rehab work included roofing, siding, service doors, windows, overhead doors, gutters/downspouts, ventilation system, spot concrete work, and electrical work. The total cost of the project was roughly $196,000.
2026 looks to have additional planned private and public work. Jessup DeCook will be completing Prairie Ridge Estates 5th Addition. Prairie Ridge 5th Addition is an eleven (11) lot residential development within the center of a previously unplatted portion of Prairie Ridge Estates. The City Council approved petition and waiver agreements with the property owners looking to move forward with public improvements to the Emerald Valley Phase II. The City will pay for the upfront cost while the benefitting property owners will either directly reimburse the City or be special assessed their share of the project costs. The City approved professional service agreements with WHKS for replatting along with engineering and inspection for Emerald Valley Phase II. Emerald Valley Phase II has conceptual plans for sixteen (16) lot residential development. The plans will be presented to the City Council in late winter with competitive bidding process taking place after plan approval. The tentative plan is to move forward with construction in summer 2026 for the public improvements (water/sewer service installations, stormwater improvements, and roadway improvements). The City Council has tentative plans for Riverside Park parking lot reconstruction project in 2026. This depends on the total carrying costs for Emerald Valley Phase II and any potential to shift to utilizing the funds for the planned pickleball/ice hockey project. Both the parking lot reconstruction and pickleball/ice hockey projects depend on timing of other work and budget constraints, but should both be completed by the end of 2027. Jason Grant Trucking is still looking at a cold storage warehouse in the industrial park. Jason Grant is held up by current high construction and interest rates. Reckitt/Mead Johnson has conceptual plans for building expansion along with traffic, parking lot, building expansion, and other outside esthetic improvements. There continues to be interest in residential single-family dwellings. City Staff anticipates continued residential construction in 2026 especially if the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates. The City has been working with Zumbrota, Pine Island, Goodhue regarding a regional wastewater treatment facility. The City received $10 million from the State for predesign and land acquisition for the facility. The Cities have hired Winthrop & Weinstine lobbyist firm to help obtain State dollars for the next phase of construction. Having capacity and reliability in the water and wastewater treatment are keys to allowing for future growth and current sustainability of the community. The North Zumbro Sanitary Sewer District hinges on State funding through the bonding bill and Point Source Implementation grant in order to be financially feasible. Schaefer stated that it was nice to hear a recap of the busy year in Wanamingo.
Administrator Boulton went over the 2026 proposed EDA portion of the Wanamingo budget. Administrator Boulton went over Funds 251 EDA, 331 Cenex 4th Addition, and 604 Medical Center. Boulton stated that 306 Cenex 3rd Addition fund was closed out after the bond was paid off in 2025.
EDA Fund 251 Levy is set to increase from $47,000 in 2025 to $48,000 in 2026. This will help offset small additional costs to keep the fund in a positive balance. 2024 expenses were $39,364 while 2025 to date expenses are roughly $33,191.46, to date.
Debt Service 331 – There continues to be no levy in 2026. The Cenex 4th Addition phase was separated from account 306 in 2018. The proceeds from the sale of property in 2018 to Concast will support the bond payments for the next seven years. The yearly bond payments will be roughly $45,000 (payment is $40,425 in 2025) running through 2031. The fund had a $254,931 balance at the end of 2024.
Medical Center Account 604 – There have been concerns with fund falling behind due to past vacant suites and utility reimbursements. The Medical Center suites are all full as of October 2022. The facility is projected to cash flow and have a $5,000-$8,000 cash surplus at the end of each year (depending on building capital needs). The Medical Center Fund owes the General Fund $43,372 at the end of 2024. The Council should consider a future levy of $10,000/year for 2-3 years or a transfer from other fund(s) of $25,000 to make the fund solvent (This would include $5,000-$8,000 yearly cash generated from current rent).
There being no further business Fritz made a motion seconded by McDonald to adjourn the EDA meeting at 6:20 p.m. Approved 6-0-0.
Brian Gudknecht, President
Michael Boulton, Director
