Bemidji City Council Discusses Possible 2026 Street Renewal Project

At last week’s meeting, the Bemidji City Council discussed a possible street renewal project for street connected to Park Avenue NW next year.

With the city having nearly completed its 17th consecutive year of street renewal projects, the council discussed next year’s round of reconstruction work. Bemidji’s engineering team is proposing projects along 19th, 20th, and 21st Street NW.

“The areas that we’re specifically focusing on are some sections that mostly are rural, currently,” said Sam Anderson, Bemidji City Engineer. “[The streets] are non-curb and gutter sections that are bordered on each side by curb and gutter.”

Plans include replacing existing water mains, adding curb and gutter to certain street segments, and putting down new asphalt. All three of the streets in the proposed project connect to Park Avenue, which was part of last year’s street renewal project.

During the meeting, some council members expressed concerns about how this would affect the residents living in those neighborhoods.

“To have [construction] for two summers in a row is considerable, and it is something that I could see would be troublesome for some people,” said Ward 4 Councilor Emelie Rivera.

“I jog those streets every night, and they’re not as bad as some of the other city streets that I’ve seen in our city,” stated Josh Peterson, who represents Ward 2. “I would actually be supportive of a different area for that simple reason.”

Two other major construction projects are already scheduled to take place next summer along Highway 197. If the city were to vote “yes” to the 2026 street renewal project, three major streets in Peterson’s ward would be closed for construction during the summer.

“It’s a lot of construction … designated in that area, and it’s just been a lot for residents in my ward, I know that for a fact,” he added.

Bemidji Mayor Jorge Prince asked about the possibility of not doing any street renewal projects next year, given the city’s budget constraints and staff workload from the June 21 storm.

“We spent a lot of the summer just cleaning up and not doing some of the things we typically would do,” said City Manager Rich Spiczka. “I think there’s a fair assessment to say we’re going to have an uptick in just general maintenance and upkeep stuff this next warm weather season because of the things we haven’t been able to get to.”

The council voted to table the discussion until their next meeting on October 20. Anderson plans to present more information to the council on the details of the construction project during that meeting.