Among the items on the agenda for Monday night’s Worthington City Council meeting is a funding request from the Lake Okabena Improvement Association.
A memo included in the council packet for Monday’s meeting notes that city staff had been approached by the association, asking if the city had any immediate plans for underwater improvements to the Sunset Park Boat Ramp. Dry conditions the past two summers have made using and maintaining this ramp almost impossible, and the city was forced to close the ramp for most of the fall of 2023.
In summer 2021, the city used local option sales tax funds to do improvements to the above water portion of the landing but began looking for other funding options for the below water portion. A request for money from the Olson Trust Fund made but denied. As other ideas have been explored, the memo notes, the landing has become more of a hazard for the users of this boat ramp. The city has received reports of damage to boat trailers due to the low water and the drop-offs related to it -– a primary reason for its closure.
The city hired a civil engineer in March 2021 to develop plans for the underwater improvements and were approved for a MN DNR Waters Permit. The city will ask council members Monday to use $88,750 in local option sales tax funds to help the Lake Okabena Improvement Association complete this project. The group has committed $10,000 toward the project and has agreed to oversee its completion.
Among the other items on Monday’s council agenda are public hearings on the planned Church Avenue pavement reconstruction project and Second Avene reconstruction project.
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