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FAIRMONT-- The Fairmont City Council on Monday looked at the possibility of contracting with a lobbyist to work on securing additional funding for the proposed community center.
At the last council meeting on Jan. 9, a resolution approving the pursuit of state bonding, as well as local option sales tax, was passed. However, there is a deadline of Jan. 31 for getting the request to the tax committee chairs for the house and the senate.
City Administrator Cathy Reynolds said the resolution has been forwarded to the tax chairs, as well as to the city's state representative and state senator.
"In doing this, I was looking at it and said, 'we really need someone to help us get through this process, to lobby it for us.. we're not up there and don't have all of the relations...," Reynolds said.
She quickly reached out to some firms that do lobbying and received some proposals in order to get them on the next city council agenda. One of the firms was Flaherty & Hood, which had a fee of $25,000 through Nov. 2023, which would cover the upcoming legislative session, the local option sales sax and state bonding request. The other firm was Lockridge, Grindal and Nauen, which was $40,000 for a year.
Reynolds said the League of Minnesota Cities recently came out with a newsletter that detailed the deluge of bills at the legislature this year. At this time of year the house typically has 181 bills, but this year, there are 636 bills. In the senate, the average is 136 bills but likewise, there's 490 bills already and more coming.
She stressed the importance of getting the bills drafted and introduced.
"I don't think a lobbyist is 'if' we do it, I think it's who we go with... to get the consideration that we need on these two bills," Reynolds said.
She said she recommended that the council go with Lockridge, Grindal and Nauen if it's not worried about the dollar amount as she felt it had more experience and inclusion, though she said the decision was up to the council.
Council Member Britney Kawecki said she felt like they needed to consider how much is at risk and agreed that time is of the essence.
"I think based on your (Reynolds's) summary, going with Lockridge, Grindal and Nauen is the best choice because they have the experience," Kawecki said.
Council Member Jay Maynard agreed that going with a lobbyist was a no-brainer, and that Lockridge, Grindal and Nauen was likely the better choice, but asked what it was that the council was deciding.
Reynolds explained that she needed council approval to select and enter into a contract with one of the firms. A motion was made to enter into a contract with Lockridge, Grindal and Nauen. The motion passed unanimously with Council Member Wayne Hasek abstaining. It will be paid for with funds from the existing local option sales tax.
Moving to other matters, the 2023 improvement program engineering report was shared. Reynolds said that the city typically plans for a street improvement program every other year.
For 2023, the city has budgeted $3.5 million for the street improvement program, which is a larger amount as the council added $100,000 in debt service funds to the levy for the street improvement program and has a larger bond being paid off, which allows for additional funding for this year's program.
Reynolds said that typically the city does projects in the odd years and in the even years it does street rating work to determine what projects will be done the following year. This year, a change is being made so that the improvements will be done over two years.
The plan then would be to work on overlays and seal coats in 2023 and in 2024 reconstruction and resurfacing.
"We are looking at spreading it over two years with the additional funding and we are also short staffed in our engineering department so when you put those two together, we're going to spread it out and see how it works for two years and then determine how we want to move it forward," Reynolds said.
Tyler Cowing, an engineer for the city, briefly detailed the preliminary list of projects that will be done over the two years. The city approved of the resolution ordering the preparation of the engineering report for the street improvements.
Economic Development Coordinator, Ned Koppen, shared a brief fourth quarter community development report. Koppen said that in the fourth quarter of 2021 the city had 21 residential permits applied for for alterations and additions and 65 for maintenance, totaling 85 permits in the fourth quarter of 2022.
As for commercial, there were two new building permits applied for and 14 for additions and alterations, totaling 16 commercial permits at a value of $1.9 million.
"Moving forward in 2023, FEDA will continue to look at developing new industrial park property, exploring options for the current business development incubator building, planning for the new building facade forgivable loan program and we will continue work with the developer to target spring as the groundbreaking for the twin homes to be built on the north side of the White Tail Ridge development," Koppen said.
The council also looked at a new park policy. Reynolds said that over the summer, when the city had an intern, they worked on the policy while receiving feedback from the Park Board.
Reynolds said that the city does not currently have a policy and that the proposed policy includes a lot of language that is already in the rental application for open air shelters, but that it would be in a more formal format. The policy also formalizes and sets fees, which the Park Board had recommended increasing.
"Another key piece that this policy was drafted for was really for the damage charges. Unfortunately we do see rentals that leave our facilities in less than ideal conditions...," Reynolds said.
The policy was adopted as presented.
In other news, the council:
-- Imposed a civil penalty on Walmart in the amount of $750 for violation of its off-sale liquor license by selling to a minor.
-- Approved LELS and AFSCME union contracts.