The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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September 24, 2009

Stimulus to fix up Orness Plaza

Oneof two housing grants in area

By Dan Linehan

MANKATO — Mary O’Connell jokes that you can make ice cubes in Orness Plaza by closing a window and setting a tray on the sill for a few hours.

All jest aside, the low-income public housing complex has aging single-pane windows that don’t keep heat in well and aren’t energy-efficient.

O’Connell, an Orness resident for two years, said the plumbing in her sink and shower tends to get backed up, too.

She still likes living here and acknowledges that any apartment is bound to have problems like these.

But O’Connell and others are still happy to hear about a $9.15 million federal stimulus grant to renovate Orness Plaza, a public housing complex for seniors and disabled people.

It will replace the entire exterior of the building, including the windows, and renovate all 101 units.

The city has been working for years preparing for the project but has struggled to find a method to fund it. Turns out all that preparation paid off.

“It was more than a surprise,” Mankato City Manager Pat Hentges said of the stimulus grant.

A second grant worth $1.08 million will allow Blue Earth County to build 18 affordably priced townhomes in Eagle Lake called Breckenridge.

As with the city’s effort to fix Orness Plaza, the county is ready to buy the land but the recession has crippled its funding source. The city of Eagle Lake has yet to re-zone the land or annex it.

The county sold 16 public housing units in Amboy about seven years ago to a private developer, County Administrator Dennis McCoy said, and the Eagle Lake subdivision will replace them.

Orness Plaza was finished in 1971 and is showing its age. Its concrete exterior has hairline cracks that allow water inside that is damaging the metal inside that’s reinforcing the concrete.

The units, especially their plumbing, haven’t had an overhaul in nearly 40 years either.

Mary Lou Lane has lived in Orness for two years and said some of the cupboards are falling apart.

Some residents said they aren’t looking forward to being shuffled around while their units are being remodeled but Lane said it’ll be worth it.

“If you want it remodeled you better tolerate the mess,” she said.

The project is expected to last between 18 months and two years and create or retain 270 jobs for a year, Hentges said.

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