By Sara Strong
The Luverne City Council Tuesday officially signed off on the deal to keep a major employer in town.
The council transferred $750,000 to the Luverne Economic Development Authority to fund expansion of the Berkley Technology Services building.
Berkley Corp. is the parent company of Continental Western Group (formerly Tri-State) and Berkley Technology Services (formerly Berkley Information Services).
The LEDA will add 8,500 square feet to the existing 20,000-square-foot BTS structure. CWG employees will move into the BTS building. The expanded building will house about 130 employees.
Berkley Corp. will then donate the vacated Tri-State building to the city of Luverne.
The city agreed to this deal to ensure the company and its payroll would stay in Luverne.
Street assessments
The council declared the final cost of this summer's street project on portions of Freeman, Estey, Bishop, Crawford and Brown streets as well as five alleys. Of the total, the city will pay $327,481.42 and affected property owners will be assessed $464,349.24.
Assessments will be payable in equal annual installments through a 10-year period with a 6-percent interest rate.
Property owners will be notified by mail about their specific assessments. The city called a public hearing at 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9, for affected property owners to be heard.
McLeod to PrairieWave
The council approved of a transfer of control of phone and cable service from McLeod USA to PrairieWave Telecommunications Inc.
Employees, services and office hours will remain the same, so customers shouldn't notice a change except for the name on their phone or cable service if they use McLeod now.