NORTH MANKATO — Two-term North Mankato City Councilman Jim Whitlock points to what he believes are a number of successful endeavors by the city during his eight years on the council and he wants to be part of doing more.
There are two four-year at-large council member seats up for election this year. Besides Whitlock, incumbents Billy Steiner is running, as are newcomers Bridget Quinton and Matthew Warnke.
“We have some good things in the making right now,” Whitlock said.
One, he said, is a major proposal from an as-yet-unnamed company that the city believes is close to announcing a big project in the Northport Industrial Park.
“We have what I call a ‘whale’ circling around looking at us. We have all the infrastructure in Northport and the land and the high-speed data infrastructure, so we’re ready for them.”
The city recently approved bonding for $2.3 million for the Port Authority — the city’s economic development arm — to buy 45 acres in the industrial park, west of Rockford Road and east of Timm Road.
Whitlock said the company planning to come in would buy 28 acres and that would pay off the bond, allowing the city to have the rest of the land free and clear. That land, he said, could be the site for a new Public Works campus.
“The Public Works down on Webster (Avenue) is on its last legs.”
He noted the Webster Avenue site also has methane coming from the ground, the product of the old city dump that was on part of the site. He said that because the city was responsible for creating the methane issue, they aren’t eligible for federal funds to help mitigate it. But if the city can sell the property for some other private development, federal funds could be obtained to deal with the methane.
Whitlock said he’s long been a champion of Northport. “The more businesses we bring in, that takes off the homeowners a tax increase and it can bring in more residents. We’ve been very conservative on tax increases. We’ve really tried to be good stewards of public money.”
He said the city continues to improve on Caswell Park and will have to wait to see if it can get state funding for a planned indoor recreation facility there, which hasn’t previously made the cut for funds.
He said the city is going to put in a water retention system near the splash pad to collect water and reuse it to water grass at Caswell. “So instead of going down the drain, we’ll reuse it and keep reusing it. “We have a deep aquifer and don’t have future water problems as long as we’re conscious about how we use water.”
Whitlock said the redevelopment of the former Norwood Inn hotel on Webster Avenue and Highway 169 is a major improvement, turning the badly deteriorated hotel into an apartment complex and related commercial spots.