FAIRMONT– On Tuesday the Martin County Board of Commissioners heard an update on the county’s federal funding request for a new justice center and ultimately chose to extend engaging with lobbyist Larkin Hoffman for another six months.

Bob Long with Larkin Hoffman has been lobbying on behalf of the county for about three years. In December, the commissioners approved extending a contract with Larkin Hoffman for lobbying on behalf of the county’s request for $20 million in state bonding.

Long pointed out that last year, the county was without a congress member representing it as Congressman Jim Hagedorn had passed away and was not yet replaced. However, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith had put Martin County’s request on their recommended list and it had made it to the appropriations committee.

“Given the competition at that level, we did not get funding,” Long said.

Long believes the county has a better chance at getting the funding this time around. He said that Congressman Brad Finstad recently announced that he will be accepting applications for congressionally directed spending requests.

“We’ve found that whenever a member of the House of Representatives puts a project on their list… whenever they did, in Minnesota at least, every single project we got on a congress member’s list, actually got funded,” Long said.

He further said he believes the amount the county could receive will be around $2 million in federal funding.

Megan Knight, senior federal government relations specialist with Larkin Hoffman, said that with Senators Klobuchar’s and Smith’s support, now along with Finstad’s support, Martin County’s chances to receive the funding have greatly increased.

“I feel like we’re well-suited and well-situated to take this project over the finish year for this first year of federal money that you guys are seeking,” Knight said.

Commissioner Kathy Smith asked for an approximate timeline. Long said that once Finstad reviews the request forms, it will put them out about 30 days.

“We would recommend in general, a six month engagement, starting Feb. 1 through the end of July so we can really work through this process with the goal of getting Martin County’s project on Congressman Finstad’s letter of recommendation to the respective subcommittees of the house and senate,” Long said.

The board passed a motion to engage with Larkin Hoffman for another six months at a rate of $4,000 per month.

Next the board considered a request from the city of Truman for property cleanup. The property in question, at 117 E. Ciro St., was deeded to the city at no cost for restoration of a blighted property. The property is next to the fire hall and will be used for possible expansion of that department after the house is demolished.

City Clerk, Melissa Sirovy, said the council has approved a bid from Rosburg Construction for $15,675 with demolition planned for this spring. She said the city was asking the county to cover half of the cost.

The county does not have funds available to assist with the cost of blighted property. Funds expended from the tax forfeited fund is for the purpose of the tax forfeited properties. However, the board did previously approve to expend one half of the demolition costs up to $10,000 from the forfeited land fund to share demolition costs with the city of Truman on property acquired directly from an estate that will potentially be used for future project development.

Smith said, “Are we opening a can of worms on this if we start doing this? If you go down the main streets of all of our small communities, there are several buildings that would have to come down in the near future. If we don’t have funds available, how can we do this?”

County Coordinator Scott Higgins agreed that this land is not tax forfeited, which is what that fund was originally set up for.

Smith said she believes a policy needs to be established so that the board will not be considering requests on a case-by-case basis.

Commissioner Jaime Bleess said, “My concern is… it’s not so much if the project is deserving of help, but if we start doing this, we could be doing it 100 times a year. Where does it stop?”

Smith said she agreed with Bleess and said the board should look at the policy along with the county attorney and auditor/treasurer.

The board approved a motion to table the matter in order to give staff a chance to review the policy with the county attorney.

Moving to other matters, the board considered two engineering bid proposals for the drainage of storm water for the courthouse.

The base fee from Bolton & Menk would be $22,900, whereas ISG would charge a base fee of $19,500, plus time and material.

Commissioner Elliot Belgard said that they have done business with both firms. He said that Bolton & Menk would have a local representative, while ISG would have to send someone from Mankato so if they went with the former, they’d save some money on travel.

Smith said the building committee recently discussed the project and felt like drainage from the roof should have been discussed during the roof project.

“I concur. I think there were a lot of “oops” made along the way with the roof and there are advantages to using Bolton & Menk since they’re here in town,” said Commissioner Richard Koons.

The board approved contracting with Bolton & Menk for the storm water drainage project to include the courthouse roof drainage, curbing/gutter along the bank of the lake and sidewalk improvement along the west side of the courthouse.

In other news, the board:

— Accepted donation of 151.1 acres of land from the Merlyn Christensen estate. The parcel will be known as “East Chain Wildlife Management Area.” It covers land in Silver Lake Township, East Chain Township and Pleasant Prairie Township.

— Approved the hire of a former employee to perform on-call motor grader services to help with snow plowing in the event that the highway department is short staffed.

— Approved a property tax abatement request for a property in Westford Township with an estimated new construction cost in the amount of $400,000.

— Approved and set the meeting time and date for the county board of equalization to be held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 20.

— Approved the hire of a part-time branch floater for the Martin County Library.

— Approved the 2023 wellness budget in the amount of $9,680 and authorized Tam Plumhoff, chair of the Martin County Wellness Committee, to sign the required agreements pertaining to the wellness program through the South Central Service Cooperative.