Unfortunately, when looking at the actual bid costs across all parts of the project it’s $1.5 million over budget without any sort of contingency about what happens when we start peeling back the layers and finding what’s in this historical building.”

City Administrator Dan Wietecha

The City of Hastings will ask for more help through the Minnesota Legislature bonding plan to fix the historic city hall dome.

The legislature included $2 million for the dome project as part of its bonding bill in 2020. The Hastings City Council last summer voted to approve a total project of $3,396,842 for the dome renovation and city hall roof, with a city contribution of about $1.2 million.

City Administrator Dan Wietecha had a resolution seeking additional state bonding help for the dome project added to the city council agenda for its meeting Monday, Oct. 2. He said that the city has had difficulty finding companies to bid on the project and estimates are that the city will need an additional $1.8 million for the project.

“We’ve gone to bid three times for this project. The first two times we had not interest, zero bids on the dome,” said Wietecha. “The third time we had one bid for the dome portion. Unfortunately, when looking at the actual bid costs across all parts of the project it’s $1.5 million over budget without any sort of contingency about what happens when we start peeling back the layers and finding what’s in this historical building.”

Adding a 7 percent contingency to that $1.5 million brings the need for the $1.8 million.

“A lot of the feedback we’re getting is just there’s, broadly speaking, more projects than there are workers, so they’re real picky about where they’re going,” said Wietecha.

It would be the fourth project the city is seeking bonding funds from the state in 2024.

The first priority, Wietecha said, is its request for help fighting PFAS contamination, which is expected to carry a $69 million price tag to make the city’s water supply free of the forever chemicals. The city’s water is currently within safe guidelines, but new federal guidelines are expected to be adopted by the state that will mean several Hastings wells have PFAS levels in excess of those guidelines.

“The number one project for Hastings is PFAS treatment, but we are pursuing, certainly not guaranteed but we’re pursuing, several other funding options for that,” said Wietecha.

The city is hoping to be deemed eligible for funding provided in a settlement with 3M, which has been the source of much of the PFAS contamination in nearby communities.

With the hope for funding coming from other sources than state bonding for the PFAS fight, Wietecha said the request for funds for the Hastings Civic Ice Arena is first on the list for funds from the legislature. He did stress that overall, for the city, fighting PFAS is priority one.

“The dome is number two, basically because those are more immediate needs and don’t have other funding options other than coming up with money locally,” he said.

The city’s other request is for funding to help pay for the Vermillion Street rebuild and related side street projects slated for 2026-27.

“This was a really great proposal, and the hard work that Dan put into it is important to our community, with all of us also acknowledging as Dan mentioned that PFAS is our number one priority,” Councilmember Jen Fox said.

The council unanimously approved the resolution seeking state bonding funds for the dome.