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Property will be home to future Kwik Trip store

Work is underway to cleanup a portion of the Blazing Star Landing where Kwik Trip plans to build a new convenience store.

The Albert Lea City Council on Tuesday awarded the contract for the excavation and disposal of contaminated soil on the northwest portion of the property.

The city received eight bids, with the low bid coming from Jensen Excavating & Trucking LLC of Albert Lea for about $326,000. Bids ranged from about $326,000 on the low end to almost $659,000 on the high end.

The engineer’s estimate was about $385,000.

The city received a $130,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development to aid in the cleanup.

The soil at the 3.66-acre site is contaminated with petroleum and other contaminants, and that soil must be removed.

The grant would cover excavation and disposal of the contaminated soil, as well as backfilling and grading at the site in preparation for the new convenience store.

The council approved a purchase agreement with Kwik Trip for the new site at its June 24 meeting.

The company is expected to build a 9,100-square-foot convenience store with multiple filling pumps and a car wash.

The site previously was the location of a meat-packing facility for almost 100 years. The Farmland Foods plant burned down in 2001, and the Blazing Star area has remained mostly vacant in the years since due to soil contamination and related remediation costs.

Second Ward Councilor Larry Baker asked where the contaminated soil is taken, and City Manager Ian Rigg said it is taken to a special landfill that can accept those types of contaminants.