By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Henning and Ottertail water customers could notice some brown water over the course of the next few months as the City of Henning completes a large water treatment facility project. While the water could have a brown look at times over the next three months, the water will remain safe to consume.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the city council heard that some of the filters will be taken off line to be repaired as soon as the middle of last week. 

A key component of the project is rehabilitating the water treatment facility’s gravity filters. To rehabilitate the filters, the city must take the filters offline to allow contractors the ability to remove existing filter equipment, making repairs to the filter cells and installing new equipment at the water treatment plant. While the filters are being rehabilitated, water will be treated by the facility’s ion exchange softeners and may result in slight appearance changes to the water while the filters are being rehabilitated. 

“The safety of the water will be there. It is still going to be perfectly fine to drink,” said Utility Supervisor Ted Strand. “Rather than going to filters for iron and manganese removal and then to the softeners, it is just going to go to the softeners. They don’t remove iron and manganese, but they will filter some through.”

While the water may have a changed appearance, at times, the water quality will not change and will continue to meet all EPA primary drinking standards. The work on the existing filter equipment is expected to take approximately three months. 

“At times there might be some brown water,” said Strand. 

The water treatment plant project is estimated to cost just under $7.3 million and included a grant for $5 million, with a low interest loan for the remaining $2,287,909 of the project.

In other news

• Heard a concern from Barry and Carlene Markuson about the recent development that the alley behind businesses and Clement Manor is private property and not owned by the city. The development came to light after concerns over plowing the alley from snow was brought to the city staff. The city has heard concerns from some of the affected property owners about potentially losing access to the alley if another property owner restricts access to their portion of the alley.

• Approved a leave of absence request from Chelsey Waskosky as Henning Ambulance Director from January 16 through August 1, 2026. 

• Heard the Henning Ambulance Service responded to 396 calls for service during the 2025 calendar year. 

• Discussed nuisance properties in the community and have opted to wait until spring of 2026 to come up with a plan on how to clean up nuisance properties throughout Henning.

• Discussed the 2026 audit proposal from Abdo at a cost of $41,950 for the 2025 year-end audit. The council said the audit increased quite significantly over the past year and heard the audit for the City of Parkers Prairie’s audit increased to $30,000, but that community does not have as many utilities and accounts as the City of Henning. The council approved a request to seek a quote from other companies for the 2025 year-end audit to see if there were other companies interested in completing the audit and will discuss the proposals as soon as the February meeting.