Princeton’s Jeremy Riddle: Wal-Mart, wastewater plant top 2011
Princeton Mayor Jeremy Riddle, in front of the Rivertown Crossing development where representatives of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. received certain key city approvals in 2011 to build a store at the development. Wal-Mart has applied for the building permit, according to Princeton City Hall, and the application is being processed, but had not yet been issued as of this writing on Dec. 23. The photo is taken looking north, with Highway 95 in the background.
Getting a commitment this year from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to build a store in Princeton, was one of the major accomplishments that Mayor Jeremy Riddle points to as happening in 2011.
Riddle said that city staff members and the council tried to make the process for the Wal-Mart sign-on as smooth and efficient as possible. It means returning phone calls, being available to potential business and industrial clients and giving information that is “not confusing,” he explained.
“It’s nice to know they are well through their process,” he said of Wal-Mart’s plan to start construction this coming spring of a 120,807 sq. ft. store with merchandise and groceries, for a planned opening within a year from then.
Princeton officials and the owners of the Rivertown Crossing Development where the store will go, just south of Highway 95 and west of Highway 169, had almost snagged Wal-Mart about three years ago, but Wal-Mart officials did not follow through at that time.
“Lots of local business owners are excited about more traffic (projected when the Walmart store opens),” Riddle said. Local retailers have seen a loss of business because of residents going to the Walmart stores in St. Cloud and Elk River and consequently also doing other shopping at those outside locations.
Wastewater plant project
After close to a decade of planning and setbacks in trying to get a project started to triple the size of the city’s wastewater plant capacity, construction finally began this year. There was some excavation work to prepare the site a few years ago and there was also a $2.5 million addition built there four years ago to reduce phosphorous discharge in the wastewater. But the main part of the expansion, that is costing $18 million, began this year and is expected to be completed sometime next year. A successful lawsuit by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy against the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency over its granting of the original expansion permit, delayed the plans for several years. Finally the new permit was given with certain conditions such as Princeton agreeing to take specific remedial steps to reduce phosphorous along the Rum River.
The downside is that it is contributing to a sewer rate increase approved this past August in which the average household monthly sewer bill is projected to go from $18.72 to $50.40 when the new rates are fully phased in this coming April 1.
The $547,500 Small Cities Development grant given to the cities of Princeton and Milaca was another accomplishment this year, Riddle noted. The zero percent loans, forgivable after 10 years if ownership remains unchanged for the recipient residential and commercial properties, helps pay for property rehabilitation.
“I hope we get more interest in it,” Riddle said. He was referring to the fact that all the money has been awarded for this grant and that by getting more applications, the cities could apply for a new grant in a future grant cycle.
Five grants for residential work and five for commercial have been awarded in Princeton through the grant. The rehab work is to occur in 2012.
The continued expansion work in the city’s main industrial park is another accomplishment, Riddle said. The main work there this year was the shell being constructed for a 186,181 sq. ft. addition at the United States Distilled Products plant.
“We might have to think about building the industrial park out more,” Riddle said, explaining that there is little room left there for more construction.
Riddle also said it was an accomplishment that the city decided this year to enforce the policy that if a property has access to city sewer they must hook into the system.
And the Princeton Area Chamber of Commerce and the city’s Economic Development Authority board also met and decided to collaborate through a joint committee to research ways to fill the downtown’s vacant retail spaces. That was an accomplishment, Riddle noted.
A lot of what was accomplished in 2011 in the city will show up as it is implemented in 2012.
