by Wayne Pelzel, Sleepy Eye Mayor
The winter of 2024 may go down as one of the mildest on record. At this point in early February its sure looking like that is a good possibility. We’ll see what February and March have in store for us.
Our hats off to the Pond Hockey Tournament Committee for the excellent event they sponsored in January. Lots of organizational work went into this event which brought many people to Sleepy Eye and provided much excitement for all those interested hockey enthusiasts. Way to go.
Looking ahead to some possible development costs, Public Works Director, Mike Hardin, put together a snapshot of other communities’ actual costs for infrastructure development and it took our breath away. Based on what those communities experienced, we could anticipate water, sewer, street, and curb costs to approach $70,000 per lot. We hope our bidding does better than that.
Our search for a suitable childcare facility alternative continues. Two sites have been identified as possibilities including St. John’s School and the Community Center. The Orchid Inn was also mentioned. Individuals representing Little Sprouts are checking into those sites and more information will be shared as it becomes available.
Sleepy Eye Regional Foundation was created to work to improve greater Sleepy Eye through fund raising and by supporting community projects. Just getting on their feet, the Foundation seeks to create a regional endowment, plans to establish a grant opportunity for community projects and will use their nonprofit status to raise funds for community projects. More information is available from the Sleepy Eye EDA Office at (507) 794-5636 or email at: sleepyeyefoundation@ outlook.com Members of the Foundation board include Sara Hornbrook, Michelle Strate, Mark Kober, Christina Andres, Kayla Jacobsen, Kurk Kramer, Brad Mathiowetz, Mike Schmid, Joann Schmidt and Wayne Pelzel. The Foundation is already being used as a tax deductible vehicle for raising funds to restore the LaFrance fire truck.
Lots of time and effort has been directed at the new “Sick and Safe Time Law” that has rewritten regulations regarding sick time for full and part time workers. The law is complicated and seemingly written for large communities so it has left folks in smaller towns working in the human resources field scrambling to understand and implement the ramifications of this new law.
We extend our congratulations to Christina Andres who was recently elected as President of the City Council. We also congratulate Craig Hansen, the Divine Providence Auxiliary, and Randy’s Family Drug who were recognized by the Chamber of Commerce for their contributions to the community