TwinCities.com
BAYPORT, Minn. — The city of Bayport is making inroads in its efforts to acquire land for a new fire station.
Officials learned last week that the city has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Fred C. and Katherine B. Andersen Foundation. The money will be distributed over three years, said City Administrator Logan Martin. The city wants to build a fire station on a vacant 4-acre site at the northeast corner of Stagecoach Trail and Fifth Avenue. The land once was part of the farm at the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater.
City officials asked the state to declare the land surplus. No state agency or the University of Minnesota claimed interest in it, neither did Washington County or the Stillwater school district. A measure authorizing the transfer of the land from prison to the city is part of the bonding bill in both the Minnesota House and Senate, Martin said. If approved, the bill would make the city exempt from the requirement to pay fair market value, or $200,000, for the land. “There is no money attached to it, so it shouldn’t be contentious,” Martin said. “As long as they pass a bonding bill this session, we should be OK.”
Full story: Bayport gets grant for new fire station, awaits bonding bill