FAIRMONT– The Martin County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday accepted a proposal from CLA (Clifton/Larson/Allen) LLP to assist the county’s accounting services in the Auditor/Treasurer’s Office.

County Coordinator, Scott Higgins, detailed a few areas the firm would assist with and said that they’d also help train the new people in the Auditor/Treasure’s office on the financial side.

The Auditor/Treasurer’s Office has seen quite a bit of recent turnover. Currently Mike Forstner is serving as interim Auditor/Treasurer.

Commissioner Jim Forshee, who previously worked in the Auditor/Treasurer’s office, said he had used the firm and that he was pleased with its service.

“We had a shortage of employees in that office in the last couple months, or years, and some of this stuff wasn’t always getting done in a timely fashion. We’re auditing that process and figuring out what hasn’t been done… it was a necessary thing for us to do,” said Commissioner Elliot Belgard.

The board also reviewed the 2023 preliminary budget. As it stands, the county is looking at a 7.53 percent levy increase.

County Commissioner Kathy Smith, who is on the ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) committee, said they’ve been meeting recently to talk about one-time expenditures that won’t impact the levy.

“We designated funds, CIP funds, technology, general fund, EDA, Human Services and then we also added parks and trails,” Smith said.

She went over some of the estimates in each category that the committee came up with.

For EDA projects, Smith said that have $100,000. Higgins, who also sits on the committee, said they considered the possibility of the funds going toward a day care project or grants.

Higgins said they added parks and trails as a separate fund rather than lumping it under the highway department. He asked the commissioners if they wanted to use $100,000 as seed money for parks and trails.

Belgard pointed out that trails will be millions of dollars. Commissioner Richard Koons, who is also on the committee, said they can start slow and see where they go.

“With the ARPA fund money, it would be very easy for us to throw a million of it against the budget this year and then we would look good. We’d have a levy that was even or less, but then we strap future boards for having to raise the levy,” said Belgard.

Koons asked if they should call it the parks and trails fund or the commission’s special projects fund as to not strap future boards. Smith said future boards can also change what the funds are used for.

The commissioners will discuss the budget several more times before it’s officially approved in December.

County Engineer Kevin Peyman gave a department update.

“I wish we weren’t updating you yet on road conditions, but it is what it is,” Peyman said.

He said crews were out on blacktops plowing snow Monday and were doing some Tuesday as well as putting down sand and salt. He said they’ve stayed off gravel roads because when they’re not frozen yet, they’d lose a lot of gravel.

In other news, Sonja Fortune, Director of the Red Rock Center for the Arts in Fairmont, also provided an update on the non-profit organization and requested funds for 2023.

The Red Rock leases its building, located at 222 E. Blue Earth Ave., from the county.

Fortune said they haven’t added or reduced programming as a result of Covid, but she did say that they’re not seeing the participation numbers that they did before Covid.

“We have however recently added a very part-time position… we are doing more classes for children and adults which are doing well,” Fortune said.

She talked about some other programming, like summer concerts in the park and visual art shows, which they have continued.

Fortune said that when they obtained the building in 2006, $600,000 went into restoration. Since then, they’ve done $229,000 in building improvements, the most significant recent one being the floor restoration project which was done just over a year ago.

“We were locked in before prices started going up. Last year we put in about $32,000 worth of improvements into the building alone,” Fortune said.

However, she said now they’re seeing less contributions and that their endowment fund is not doing very well. She said in the past the county has contributed $4,050 annually and she requested that amount again. The commissioners filed the request.

In other action, the board:

— Approved and authorized the purchase of a 2017 asphalt mixer in the amount of $3,000 from Stearns County.

— Approved and certified the Individual Septic Treatment Systems (ISTS) loans in the amount of $136,891 for CY2022.

— Approved a property tax abatement for Chad Hasted for new construction in Galena Township.