During part of a bonding tour in southwest Minnesota, members of the state Senate Capital Investment Committee saw parts of the Southwest Minnesota State University Campus that benefited from Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR) funding. Nathan Polfliet, Associate Vice President of Advancement at SMSU, told legislators including Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart and Sen. Sandy Pappas that HEAPR made it possible for the university to replace its pool deck.

MARSHALL — A new home for a Slayton child care center, and updated water lines in the city of Edgerton, are among the projects seeking bonding dollars from the Minnesota Legislature.

Ashley Haken, a board member of Wonder World Preschool in Slayton, told members of the Minnesota Senate’s Capital Investment Committee that Wonder World was in urgent need of support to build a new facility.

“Child care issues are nothing new. We hear them all over the country, and in Minnesota as well. However, our issue is unique. We’re the only child care center in Murray County,” Haken said. The lease at Wonder World’s current location is coming to an end, and they seek to build a new facility as soon as possible.

On Tuesday, members of the state Senate Capital Investment Committee made a stop at Southwest Minnesota State University as part of a tour through southwest Minnesota. Senators heard requests for state bonding dollars, as well as for Higher Education Asset Preservation and Replacement (HEAPR) funding.

Representatives of SMSU said the university is seeking $10 million in HEAPR funding to make needed improvements in the Bellows Academic building on campus. The cooling system in the building is failing, said Nathan Polfliet, Associate Vice President of Advancement at SMSU. The $10 million project includes full replacement of the building’s HVAC system.

SMSU is also seeking about $15.1 million in HEAPR funding to renovate the university’s original 1967 locker room and shower areas.

Legislators also toured parts of the university that benefited from HEAPR funding. One example was SMSU’s swimming pool facility. Polfliet and SMSU Vice President for Finance and Administration Deb Kerkaert said previous HEAPR funding made it possible for the university to replace the pool deck.

On Tuesday, legislators heard presentations from the cities of Slayton, Edgerton and Marshall. Haken and Slayton City Administrator Josh Malchow said the city was making a one-time request of $1 million in state bonding dollars to build a new child care facility on city-owned land. The new facility would be licensed for a maximum of 92 children, and be leased to Wonder World.

“In June of 2024, we found out that the church we leased from, and have leased from since 1972, they were combining parishes, and therefore they were going to need the space so they could further their ministries, which means we lost our lease,” Haken said. “Because it was so sudden, we also didn’t have the means in place to build a new facility or find a new home pretty quickly.”

Wonder World is a nonprofit that is currently licensed for 76 children, Haken said. The hard date for the end of Wonder World’s current lease, is July 31, 2027, she said.

Malchow said this will be the second year that Slayton and Wonder World were requesting state funding. They are seeking $1 million, out of a $2.1 million total project cost. Roughly $1 million has already been raised for the project, with the city of Slayton, the Murray County EDA, and the Taylor Family Farms Foundation all contributing, he said.

The city of Edgerton also brought forward a bonding request on Tuesday, for an anticipated $9 million project to replace deteriorating water mains and streets in part of the city. Edgerton City Clerk Joel Farrington and Riley Rinehart with DGR Engineering said cast-iron water mains in the city were corroding from the inside out, leading to “orange and brown water” coming out of faucets. Existing sanitary sewer lines also needed to be replaced.

Farrington and Rinehart said the city was proposing to fund the project with $4.5 million in bonding dollars, and another $4.5 million in USDA Rural Development funding. The proposed project was the second phase of planned utility and street replacements in Edgerton. The first phase was recently completed.

The city of Marshall, together with MnDOT, also spoke with legislators at Tuesday’s tour stop.

“We were asked to come talk about the Local Road Improvement Program (LRIP),” said Ted Schoenecker, with MnDOT’s Office of State Aid and Statewide Radio Communications. In addition to talking about state transportation funding programs, Schoenecker and Marshall Public Works Director Jason Anderson highlighted how Marshall has used LRIP funding in the past.

“In 2023, the city of Marshall completed a resurfacing project on Channel Parkway,” Anderson said. “We used LRIP funding on that project. Channel Parkway is a good candidate for this program, because it has to be a route of regional significance to qualify for the LRIP program.”

Anderson said Channel Parkway connects Highways 19, 68, and 59 in the city of Marshall, and serves as a freight corridor in the city. A $1.25 million LRIP grant helped the city complete a $1.4 million resurfacing project on the road.

“It was a really big deal,” he said. Anderson estimated resurfacing Channel Parkway cost about 50% more than Marshall’s annual allocation of state aid funding.

Anderson told legislators that Marshall also plans to apply for LRIP funding for a future road project, at the intersection of South Fourth Street and Country Club Drive. The roughly $3 million project would include building a small roundabout at the intersection of the two streets, which currently meet at a sharp angle.

“We’ve been looking at this project and trying to get it scheduled into our capital plan for a long time,” he said. “It’s tough for us to attain this project without outside funding.”