Montgomery City Council approved its preliminary levy for 2027 at Monday’s regular meeting, with the absence of council member Daniel Siebsen and the late Mick McGuire’s open seat. The proposed levy, which had to be presented by Sept. 30 by state law, amounts to $3,710,409, which is a 5.22% increase over the adopted 2026 levy of $3,526,356. These preliminary numbers are set as in they cannot increase but could decrease before a final levy is adopted in December.

    The City of Montgomery recently updated its website and, in the process of doing so, people subscribed to its notifications system were not transferred. This left people who normally were signed up to receive alerts via text and/or email for things like snow emergencies and other important city notices, in the dark.

    The Montgomery Parks and Recreation Advisory Board toured Memorial Park on Aug. 5 to see progress on the new playground and consider future improvements.
    Public Works Superintendent Nick Filipek gave the board the tour, highlighting projects completed, projects still in progress, and a wishlist of things to consider for future projects.
    The playground project is going smoothly. Filipek says that the city will be working on the site preparation through September, and the new set will likely be installed before the end of October. 

    Montgomery City Council approved the purchase and construction of a new playground  on Monday to replace the aging one in Memorial Park. The playground is over 20 years old and is rusting with some parts not functional, such as a slide that was boarded up and removed last year because it was not safe.
    The budget that was set forth for the new playground was $275,000 from the park improvement fund, and the city had applied for a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Outdoor Recreation Grant, but was unsuccessful in receiving the grant to reduce the city’s burden.

    Last Thursday’s Montgomery Farmer’s Market in Memorial Park was a special combination of elements.
    The market featured four tractors from the Krocak family brought in by four teenagers — Nathan Akerlund, Hunter Tuma, Logan Krocak and Noah Fields. Liz Krocak said, “Some kids have never even seen a tractor or been out to a farm. This is a fun way for them to see a little bit about what it is about.”

    Breaking from the typical beer garden and a couple of bands annual routine, the Montgomery Fire Department did what they could to commemorate this very special sesquicentennial.

Memorial Park playground
    The Montgomery Parks and Recreation Advisory Board was presented secondary options for the Memorial Park playground at their May 6 meeting. So far, the city has been working with Landscape Structures on a design that would cost about $230,400.
    Minnesota Wisconsin Playground (MWP) asked if they could submit their own quote to the city. MWP was recently bought by GameTime play equipment, making their equipment now direct-from-manufacturer and allowing for discounts.

    Montgomery City Council approved the three-year sealcoating plan for city streets at the April 20 regular meeting.
    Areas for 2027 include the 2025 Street and Utilities Improvement Plan area on the west side, as well as portions of the west of that location, and Lexington Avenue Northwest and 1st Street North near the police station up to Boulevard Avenue. Estimated cost for the 2027 portion is $134, 751.21.

    Montgomery Community Foundation (MCF) transitioned the care of the third annual event, Montgomery State of the Community, to the care of the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce (MCC) while still providing funding support. 
    Along with the change in oversight came a change of day and format. MCC Executive Director Caitlin Huiras moved the event to a weekday at lunchtime and included lunch this year as a part of the deal in attempts to attract more of the community than what the previous two years brought on a Saturday morning.

Montgomery Streets
    Most of the streets in the area between the railroad tracks and Le Sueur County 3/5th Street, and north of Le Sueur County 56/Oak Avenue and south of Boulevard Avenue will receive partial surface milling and a full overlay of pavement this summer. 

    Bolten & Menk was approved to move forward with design and oversight of rehabilitating the city’s wastewater treatment facility, which is past its lifespan being over 20 years old.
    The unanimous decision by city council, and recommended by the public works advisory board, calls for an upfront fee $1,145,550 in engineering fees to oversee the project. Estimated costs for the total rehabilitation, including engineering, legal, and administration, is estimated between $13.8 to $18 million dollars.

    At a recent meeting, our city officials described a tentative agreement that would allow a for-profit developer to construct a 56-unit apartment building on 7th Street East. This site is located on a dead-end road that is accessible only from Elm Avenue East—also a dead-end road. The proposal includes substantial property-tax subsidies for the developer, along with the city selling the acreage for just one dollar.

City of Montgomery officials presented their updated plan to address what was a largely ballooning tax burden on the former timeline of the Street and Utility Improvement Plan (SUIP) and other infrastructure desires. 
    What was looming as a tripling of city taxes has now been knocked down to between 125% to about 175% of the current city taxes, evening the burden out for many years but adding to the overall cost long-term. 

Montgomery city officials held their first of three town halls regarding the updated Street and Utilities Improvement Plan (SUIP) and the long-term budget of the city, as well as gave more details about the new Memorial Park playground to be installed in 2026. Only two residents showed up to this first town hall.

Montgomery City Administrator Brian Heck formally announced to city council his retirement plans, which has a somewhat flexible target date of June of this year. This was announced at the Monday, Jan. 5, special city council meeting.

“What I told Tom (Mayor Thomas Eisert) and what I put in my notes to council is that my target is June. June is what I’m looking at, and I will commit to hanging around until someone is brought on,” said Heck.