Lyon County Board Meeting - September 5, 2023

Pumping and hauling water might have been the standard in the early 1900s, but those practices don’t hold water in 2023.
That’s why the Wheels Across the Prairie Heritage Center is making efforts to move into the 21st century when it comes to access to water there. And on Tuesday, the City of Tracy and museum supporters got two pieces of good news in its ongoing efforts to upgrade the museum.
The Lyon County Board on Tuesday approved the allocation of $20,000 in ARPA funding to bring a water system to the museum.
“The museum is an integral part of what we offer as a city,” Community Development Director Jeff Carpenter said in his presentation to the board. “It explains our past, it explains where we want to go. We have so many good board members out there and support them, but one of the things we don’t have out there is sewer and water hook-ups.”
That will all change in the coming years, as commissioners not only approved the ARPA funds for water, but OK’d earmarking $15,000 from the County’s contingency fund for a sewer/septic line.
“The museum is in the city limits, but we don’t have sewer and water,” Carpenter explained.
The museum currently uses an outdoor cistern to get water to the needed places on the campus, including a bathroom in the main office building.
“Outdoor water systems in the heat … you’ve looked at lakes, what happens to them, a similar thing tries to happen to any kind of a water system outside, said Heritage Center Board member Ken Witt, who along with fellow board member Gary Hippe and librarian/grant writer Val Quist joined Carpenter at Tuesday’s county board meeting. “A museum should be a good experience, and sometimes if you walk away from a meeting at the museum and you hear somebody say they remember having to put some water into a toilet — it’s a little tough. Hopefully we can cooperate with the City and get some water out there.”
Having access to water on the center’s grounds, Witt said, will make a world of difference for everyone associated with the museum.
“Our president often hauls water from his house to put water on the gardens,” he said. “We hope to put in a couple of outdoor faucets so we can get some water to the gardens as well. We’re really trying to improve the overall museum.”
Commissioner Paul Graupmann made the motion to prove the ARPA funds, with Commissioner Gary Crowley seconding. Graupmann also motioned to allocate the $15,000 in contingency monies for the sewer system, with Board Chair Rick Anderson seconding. Both votes passed unanimously.
The Center currently utilizes a 500-gallon septic talk, but it leaks, allowing ground water in and sewage out in places other than the drain field, which Witt said is inadequate.
“There’s not a lot of room to put a drain field anywhere else,” he said. “We believe we can put in a bigger septic tank with two compartments. One of them could be used to pump water to a mound system if we get there. Right now, we probably couldn’t put enough water into the mounds system to keep it going, especially over the winter, so that’s down the road.”
The County has traditionally been very supportive of museums, including in Marshall, Lynd, Balaton, Tracy and Minneota.
A total of $200,000 in ARPA funds is available to the City; what is left will likely be used for the development of Tracy’s industrial park. The $20,000 request was the first ask from the City of Tracy for ARPA monies.
In other news:
After a public hearing that drew no public opinion, the Board passed a cannabis ordinance which mirrors those of surrounding cities.
• The board approved an overall preliminary net levy of $16,309,521 (1.7%). This is up from the previous figure of 0.9%, which was discussed at an earlier meeting. The County must set the preliminary levy before the end the month (at its Sept. 19 meeting). The final levy will be adopted in December. Before that, the levy cannot be raised, but it can be lowered.