2023 in Review: Oronoco faced turbulent times as the city takes a big leap forward

Dec. 27—ORONOCO, Minn. — This should have been a year to celebrate in Oronoco.

Instead, it saw its mayor and members of the city council face a lawsuit for allegedly silencing a resident during a city council meeting. One

city council member, Carl Krause, threatened to resign

— then later retracted — during a meeting in mid-March. Another city council member — Dana Bergner — did resign after the Oct. 17, 2023, meeting where

City Administrator Sunny Bjorklund Schultz was fired from her post.

It was a lot of turmoil that Mayor Ryland Eichhorst said he's glad is behind them now as the city looks forward to its new wastewater treatment plant coming online this spring, something the city had hoped would happen this fall.

"We'll be doing some preliminary component start up in December, and some commissioning and training in January," Eichhorst said of the efforts to get the plant up and running.

The holdup, he said, has to do with a delay from a supplier of a major electrical component for the lift stations that are part of the sewer system infrastructure. Once those items are delivered and installed, sometime between January to mid-March, the wastewater system treatment plant should go online by late March or mid-April at the latest.

That will represent a big change for the city, which had been the "largest unsewered city" in the state of Minnesota. That'll all change when the plant is running and right away the city's three biggest residential developments — which currently use community septic drain fields — and Oronoco Estates, the mobile home community just north of the city, all connect immediately to the sewer lines. Then individual homes will begin hooking up to the system as well.

Once the city's homes and businesses are hooked up to the wastewater treatment system, the outlook for the city changes.

Eichhorst has said without a wastewater treatment plant, you can't have apartment buildings and you can't have businesses that might need to use large amounts of water.

That said, good things are coming to Oronoco. A new restaurant,

Two Sisters Kitchen + Bar,

started construction is should open this summer. Eichhorst said with its proximity to the north side of Rochester, it could become something of a local destination point.

Furthermore, Glen Motorcoach Tours is relocating from its current location near U.S. Highway 14 and 60th Avenue Northwest to a new site in Oronoco, Eichhorst said.

Anticipating more business that will see Oronoco as a good location, the city has started its new economic development agency. The EDA's bylaws will be approved in January 2024, he said.

"We're excited to be moving forward," Eichhorst said.

All of this, of course, comes after the kerfuffles that disrupted the council in 2023.

A settlement was reached between Eichhorst and three members of the city council — Jim Richards, Jim Phillips and Krause — vs. Andrea Johnson, who

sued the four members of the city government for violating her First Amendment right to free speech.

Eichhorst, who said he is bound by the terms of the sealed settlement not to talk about it, did say he's glad to have the case behind him.

"I'm glad it's over with, glad it's settled and glad it didn't go to trial," he said.

Furthermore, the city has appointed a new council member to replace Bergner. Paul Pendergrass was approved at the November council meeting, coming with experience both on the city council and as a member of the planning and zoning commission.

With, hopefully, peace reigning among the city council and new business and residential potential thanks to the wastewater treatment plant, Eichhorst said he sees brighter days for Oronoco in 2024.