Council approves updated Capital Improvement Plan

The Lennox City Council met Monday, Feb. 9 in the Lennox Boardroom. Mayor Fergen and council members heard agenda items including updates to the Capital Improvement Plan and legislative discussions.

The City of Lennox is due for an update of the community’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). 

“The only big changes from what most of the council has seen in the past is that we’re not including the funding mechanism for these projects on this version of the CIP. We certainly can do that, but I think I would prefer some flexibility in that given how things have changed over the past few years,” City Administrator, Nate Vander Plaats said. 

City Engineer Mitch Mergen  was present to provide highlights to the council. 

“Nate had communicated to me the desire of the council to really target some of these streets that are remaining that are still gravel. So that’s kind of what we approached to begin with,” he said. 

The first project is Oriole Avenue which is scheduled for 2026. 

“That’s the project we are looking to advertise here by the end of the month and have a contractor on board to do that work this summer,” he said. 

Project two is Fourth Avenue improvements, where the city left off with the Central Basin Phase one project and the third project will be central basin phase five, which includes the continuation of the same type of project in the area. 

“Both 4th Avenue and Central Basin phase five we’ve identified in 2027 construction and if you remember, we did that over two years because it’s good to get a nice, big project for a contractor to stay here and be able to work, because it’s so much more cost effective,” Mergen aid. 

Feeling confident in the direction of next three years of work, Mergen feels it should be reevaluated in three years as the projects are completed. 

Mayor Danny Fergen opened the floor to public comment and Jim Jibben stood to speak. 

“My question was on the Cleveland multiuse trail extension. One of the maps that I printed off looks like it starts along Highway 44 and then stays on the east side of Cleveland Avenue. The other map looked like it went across Cleveland onto property owners, so I guess I’m wondering which one is correct,” Jibben asked. 

“Our plan is to probably stay on the east side, we just think it’s a better location as the ground is probably easier to get across there and that is where we extended the box cover, on the east side to get across there instead of crossing the over Cleveland,” Mergen responded. 

President Chad Swier questioned the timing and funding options for the project.

“I added up ’27, ’28, and ’29 which are $9.5 million, $10.5 million, and 8 million, so like $28 million over three years and I have a big concern as to how we’re  going to pay for that without drastically impacting our water bills or however else we’re going to fund this,” he said. 

“We need to know the impact to our residents because really, this is all hope, but if the funding doesn’t make sense or we’re putting too much on our residents too soon, it’s hard to say that we made this plan, now we’ve got to stick with it when we don’t have that good feeling about how we’re going to pay for it,” Vice President Daugherty added. 

To ease concerns, Bergen reminded the council all plans have to be approved through them before being started. 

“You’d have to authorize us to advertise the project, you have to authorize it to be awarded, so this really is just more framework of the projects that you want to try to get done, understanding that funding is a big part of it,” he said. 

Motion to approve the amended Capital Improvement Plan by Lauren VanDriel, seconded by Daugherty, motion carried unanimously.

Finance Officer, Tyson Dahler, proposed the council take the following positions on the legislation introduced. 

“Nate put a list together going through every bill that could pertain to the City of Lennox and he gave a recommendation of what position you should take on it,” Dahler said. 

“Nate is asking for council support of this as he’s spending a lot of time advocating, talking to our representatives, and senator from our district and speaking on behalf of us,” Mayor Fergen said asking for questions or thoughts of the council. 

“There’s a lot of different themes. Overall, I agree with his sentiment that he’s wanting local control over our jurisdiction, which I think I’m in favor of that. Without being intimately knowledgeable on each of these bills, we’re kind of taking his word for the interpretation of it, which, you know, you’ve got to take that as accurate, but I’m a little hesitant to say this interpretation is correct or this interpretation is the intent of the bill,” President Swier said. 

“Bouncing his comments against the South Dakota Municipal League’s wrap-up and their information, it rounds it out, but it’s still coming from the same angle essentially. The impact of many of the things that have been discussed in the legislature are profound and fortunately a lot of them have been killed because they were too drastic, too dramatic, and took too much liberty away from communities. There are some things, like a TIF district, that are critical for us to keep in place if we want to grow and in order to have the ability to bring in a development, we need that mechanism. We don’t have the coffers to just make a project happen without some form of governmental district to fund it,” Vice President Daugherty added. 

“A lot of these bills that we’re looking at, a number of them are not on the league briefings yet, or they may not make it because things are happening so quickly. I haven’t talked to Sarah about that yet with the municipal league, but I have a phone call with her tonight, so I could ask that as well. My concern is that I can advocate as much as possible on any of these bills, but I prefer to do it knowing that the council has taken a stance to support or oppose those bills before I speak for the city,” Vander Plaats said.

“I think a little bit more time on that if you’re able to give us more information, and present this again in two weeks,” Mayor Fergen said. 

Motion to table by Daugherty, seconded by Billy Welch, motion carried.