FAIRMONT– On Tuesday the Martin County Commissioners learned the county was awarded a Projects and Practices grant, worth $882,000, from the Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources as funded by the Clean Water Land and Legacy Amendment.

The goal of the grant is to reduce pollutant leading to Amber Lake, a designated primary drinking water source and recreational lake for the city of Fairmont.

Mark Origer, a civil engineer with ISG, was present to go over details of the grant with the commissioners.

“We’re looking at the Martin County Ditch 28 watershed. This is the watershed south of the city of Fairmont in Rolling Green Township. It drains directly into Cedar Creek and then into Amber Lake and the Chain of Lakes,” Origer said.

He said there was a petition several years ago for an improvement on the watershed and in December 2020 there was a preliminary engineering hearing on the project. That project included tile improvement, 5.5 acre storage pond and a small portion of the ditch to be deepened and overall ditch repair.

Origer said there was strong comments and feedback from the commissioners, the city of Fairmont, the Department of Natural Resources and others on the water quality. ISG was asked to look for grant funding and Origer said they took that seriously.

“We applied in August 2021 for the grant and got notice in December 2021 that the county was awarded $882,000 for the clean water fund grant,” Origer said.

The grant application requested funding for two projects; a two-stage ditch and an 11-acre nutrient treatment wetland.

“In looking at the open ditch portion, we did see quite a bit of erosion and sloughing. We recommend at the very minimum doing some maintenance on this,” Origer said.

He shared different cost estimates of what it would take to fix the ditch and what would all beinvolved in making it into a two-stage ditch. He said overall to convert the whole open ditch to a two-stage ditch is $405,000.

“That’s what was requested in the grant and that’s what was awarded. This is well above and beyond what’s required by the improvements but it will be good for the system long-term,” Origer said.

Moving to pond storage Origer said it’s important to look at the outlets and with such a big improvement to the tile system, there was an increase in peak flow.

They designed a 5.5 acre pond and $472,000 from the grant could go toward the project cost.

Origer said the project is called the Nutrient Improvement Treatment Train and includes drainage improvement, 11 acre nutrient wetland and two-stage ditch. The grant requires a match of 25 percent, which equals about $232,000 in cash or in-kind contribution. The grant also requires some education/outreach.

The whole project is estimated at $1.9 million. The $882,000 covers education, outreach and construction of the wetlands and two-stage ditch. Origer went over some ways to save some costs, which would lower it to $1.85 million.

He said ultimately the board would need to discuss which direction it wants to go and how it would allocate funds.

“This is a massive project. I think you were either the second or third largest grant awarded in the state,” Origer said.

He said they have until the end of 2024 to complete the project but the workplan for the grant is due in March.

Moving to other matters, the commissions heard from Jeremy Monahan, joint county transit director, who asked for Martin County’s share of dollars, which totals $33,480, for the Transit Facility Construction project.

The total contract with MnDOT was for $270,000 and there was a 20 percent local share. Martin County has 62 percent of the service hours for Prairie Lake Transit and the board has agreed that expenditures be split with that ratio and Faribault County will handle the other 38 percent.

“The board agreed to this several years ago,” Commissioner Elliot Belgard said.

He said the money was previously budgeted and and while the project has been delayed for various reasons, it’s still there.

The commissioners approved to authorize the county’s share of funds for the project.

In other news:

— The commissioners heard from Bob Long of Larkin Hoffman regarding updates to the county’s bonding request for the proposed Martin County Public Safety and Justice Center. The board accepted the bill as presented and approved it to move forward.