by Dennis Dalman
At its first January meeting of 2025, Sartell City Council members agreed unanimously to authorize applications for two grants – one for infrastructure improvements in the medical-campus area, the other for pedestrian-safety enhancements.
Both grants were items on the council’s consent agenda, which the council approved without further comment.
The first (bonding request from the state legislature) is for improvements at the site of the rapidly growing Central Minnesota Healthcare Hub, which is located in Sartell and across the road in St. Cloud. The bonding request is for $22,750,000, and the major improvements and new construction would be done on LeSauk Drive, Leander Drive, Fourth Avenue S., 15th Street S. and 23rd Street S. The project would include construction and reconstruction of those critical roadway corridors within the healthcare hub area.
The requested appropriation includes money for the predesign, design, engineering, acquisition of right-of-way and full construction/reconstruction of the roadway corridor, including utilities, streets, pedestrian improvements, lighting and improvements or upgrades related to roadway corridor work.
That area, sometimes referred to as Sartell’s “Medical Campus,” has created hundreds of jobs and about $10 million in tax revenue. It is likely to keep growing, especially with an upcoming University of Minnesota Medical School and other planned developments.
That same bonding request was made by the council last year. However, there was no bonding bill approved by the state legislature in 2024.
In an effort to secure that particular bonding request, Sartell obtained a lobbyist agreement last fall with the Flaherty and Hood law firm.
Pedestrian safety
The other grant whose application the Sartell City Council authorized for submittal is for an “Active Transportation” grant through the St. Cloud Area Planning Organization.
The grant would cover 100 percent of the construction costs, estimated to be about $641,000. It would involve intersection improvements at the extremely busy Pinecone Road and Seventh Street N. area. That grant amount would be added to some other existing grants to complete the project. Included would be school-zone beacons, dynamic speed signs and a flasher crosswalk system.
Such pedestrian-safety lights and other installations would be placed at six intersections from Second Avenue N. to Ninth Avenue N., all of which are near schools in that area.
