HURON — After setting aside money for more than a decade, the city is moving ahead with a project to build a new public works building for the water-sewer, traffic and street departments.
“If any of you have been able to go into our street shop and sign shop you would know why we need it so bad,” Mayor Paul Aylward said Monday.
The project has been on the drawing board for so long that some employees didn’t think it would ever get built, he said at the Beadle County Republican Women luncheon.
But saving money since 2005 means that the city won’t have to borrow a dime to pay for the project.
Large trees are being cleared from the site at Third Street and U Avenue in the West Industrial Park, and dirt work is expected to get under way soon. Completion is set for next September.
Estimated to cost $5.5 million, the low bid submitted by Kyburz-Carlson Construction of Aberdeen came in at $5.1 million.
“It will be really nice, and it should serve the city for the next 100 years,” Aylward said.
Meanwhile, he said the city is making good progress in its ongoing work to line sewer mains and manholes and to replace water mains and install handicap ramps at intersections.
Instead of incurring the expense and inconvenience of digging up and replacing sewer mains, it is having them re-lined through the use of a relatively new technology. This year, Visu-Sewer of Pewaukee, Wis., has been re-lining the main on Third Street. Sixty-two manholes have also been re-lined this season.

Dahme Construction of Aberdeen has replaced just over two miles of water main this year.
Thanks to the commitment of previous commissions and that of the current one, much of the infrastructure work will be done within the next few years and money will be available for other major projects, Aylward said.
A couple weeks ago, the final reading of the 2018 budget was approved.
“We put a lot of time into it, and we’ve looked in every corner and every pocket and every place that we could find money, and as dictated by state law, we did come up with a balanced budget,” the mayor said. “But it was a hard thing to do this year.”
With new growth figured at just under 1 percent, property tax revenue will increase by about $92,500 in 2018. Commissioners budgeted for a 3 percent increase in the three pennies of sales taxes.
Salaries are figured in the budget and will be adjusted when a salary study is finished at the end of December.
A capital assets committee that began meeting in early August submitted $11 million in requests from city departments. Commissioners approved $3.5 million in expenditures.
The total budget of $31,345,000 million is 6 percent less than the 2017 total of $33,295,000.
Aylward said that as of the most recent figures a month ago, Huron has seen a total of $19.5 million in new construction and remodeling in both the residential and commercial sectors this year.
“That’s the biggest number that we’ve ever had, even for a whole year,” he said.
It doesn’t include two projects that are now getting under way — the Ground Round Restaurant and the Dakotaland Federal Credit Union building in Southtown.
As for the city’s governing board, Huron has a five-member, nonpartisan commission form of government.
“We’re not identified by a political party, and we don’t enter into political discussions, and it works out pretty well,” Aylward said.
Commissioners have gotten a lot of things done over the past several years, he said. Progress, of course, is always limited by available funds, he said.
Each member of the commission is tasked with being responsible for city departments and also serves as a liaison to different boards and commissions.
When he came into office, Aylward said he was amazed to learn that 130 residents volunteer their time to serve on those boards. Most boards meet monthly.
“I really appreciate all the efforts of the board members that serve on them,” he said. “They do a wonderful job. They take their duties very seriously and don’t get much thanks.”