MANKATO — By the end of this year, the heart of Mankato’s Old Town business district could look more like what was envisioned in a 2016 master plan for fueling the further revitalization of the once-depressed retail area.
The City Council on Monday night agreed to the latest plan to put the finishing touches on the makeover of Old Town, which is on the National Register of Historic places and was the focal point of a $10.7 million reconstruction project last year.
The reconstruction of Riverfront Drive, which included pavement and utility upgrades from Main Street to Third Avenue, brought wider sidewalks, some landscaping and safer pedestrian crossings along the busy — and increasingly vibrant — corridor. But business owners and others were disappointed by the installation of towering highway-style streetlights, rather than vintage lighting, and the absence of other aesthetic improvements suggested in the 2016 Old Town Master Plan.
The City Council agreed in February to pursue a $742,000 streetscaping project this summer, with most of the funds dedicated to replacing the 30-foot-tall stainless steel poles, topped with cobra-head light fixtures, with decorative lights half as tall. Along with better matching the storefronts, which date as far back as 1869 and include several from the 1870s and ‘80s, the vintage lights would be equipped to hold Christmas lights and seasonal banners.
Area contractors showed little interest in tackling the project, however, with the only bidder offering to do the work for 124% more than what an engineering firm had predicted.
The council rejected the bid, and city staff explored alternatives for accomplishing at least the highest-priority work within the budgeted amount. A proposal brought forth Monday aims to get the work started on the six-block segment from Main to Rock streets, leaving the highway-style lights in place farther to the north.
“Staff met with representatives of the Old Town Association and have developed a reduced scope of work,” a memo to the council stated. “The revised project scope is anticipated to be able to be delivered within the approved budget.”
In addition to dropping the light replacements north of Rock, the revised plan also removes the reinstallation of the “Old Town Monument” — a stone marker that indicated where the historic district begins.
The revised plan makes the addition of benches and bike racks an alternate in the bidding process. That means the seating and bike racks will be included in the project if the bids come in low enough, but can be dropped if that’s necessary to keep the work within budget.
Another alternate in the bid involves salvaging the towering cobra-head street lights — which were brand new when installed last summer — by using them as replacements on North Riverfront Drive, a section of Mankato that has aging energy-inefficient street lights and none of Old Town’s historic architecture.
Staff learned during the first round of bidding that some contractors were reluctant to bid on the work partly because of concerns about the risks of reinstalling the new poles using existing pole foundations and deteriorating electrical conduits on North Riverfront. So by making it an alternate in this round of bids, contractors can still submit a bid on the remainder of the work even if they remain reluctant to reinstall the poles.
If that alternate is not included, the year-old poles would be put in storage for potential use in an unidentified future project.
Consulting engineers at Bolton & Menk are estimating the revised project will have a construction cost of $565,750.
The council voted without discussion to seek new bids for the revamped streetscaping, with bids to be opened on July 21 and approved or rejected by the council on July 28.
Construction would occur this fall and could be completed by the end of the year, although the project might extend into the spring of 2026 if there are delays in obtaining the decorative lighting or other project materials.