FAIRMONT–A public hearing on the 2024 improvement Program drew a small crowd to the Fairmont City Council meeting on Monday evening. Details of the improvement program were presented by Wes Brown of Bolton & Menk and Tyler Cowing, a civil engineer with the city.

Back on Jan. 22, the council adopted a resolution accepting the receiving report and at that time set the public hearing for 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 12. After that property owners affected by the 2024 improvements were notified of the hearing.

Brown stressed that Monday’s hearing was the preliminary hearing and that a second one will be held later on this year.

“The goal tonight is to present the project scope and details associated with the proposed project and the costs associated with it…,” Brown said.

The project includes measures that will be taken to improve the street surface conditions and extend the life of the streets and underlining utilities, improve the neighborhood aesthetics and improve the safety of the motoring public and pedestrian traffic.

Cowing then shared some more detailed information about the project. He started with talking about the reconstruction of Park Street, starting at Albion Avenue and going north to Budd Street. It will include all utilities and street infrastructure.

“This property has 40 abutting property owners. The current right-of-way is 49.5 feet… the current pavement condition index for this street is 12 out of 100,” Cowing said.

He also spoke about the resurface project on Woodland Avenue from County Road 39 to Fairlakes Avenue. This project has 50 abutting property owners.

“Utilities on this one are in pretty good shape. Most of them were installed in the 1960s and we’ve had no history of major problem with the utilities,” Cowing said.

Finally the seal coat projects were touched on which consist of many different streets, many of which are overlays from last year to prevent oxidation and weathering.

“As for the cost of these projects, the estimated cost for Park Street is coming in at $1.8 to $1.9 million. Woodland Avenue is estimated at $643,000 and the seal cost projects are estimated at $108,000, totaling $2.65 million worth of improvements including engineering and administration costs,” Cowing said.

He said that all of the nearby property owners were mailed their preliminary assessments for the project but reiterated that they’re just preliminary and said that actual assessments will come in at the end of the project.

“A mail notice will come in this fall. Generally we have the second hearing for these projects, which certifies these assessments, in October after the projects are completed,” Cowing said.

He said there is also an appeals process that is available if property owners want to appeal the assessment.

Following the presentation property owners who will be affected by the assessments were given the opportunity to voice concerns or ask questions to the council. Just one question was posed to the council

Council Member Randy Lubenow raised a concern about the difference between

residential property and farm land and noted that there are some property owners who have property that qualifies as both.

He asked that city staff look at how farm land is taxed in the county, compared to those in city limits.

Council Member Michele Miller said she agreed that that needed to be done.

The council approved of ordering the improvements, preparing plans and advertising bids.

Moving to other matters, Lee Steinkamp, Airport Manager, presented both information on the airfield pavement project and the airport layout plan/master plan update grant application.

First, Steinkamp said that while the project total for the airfield pavement is about $149,000, the city’s actual share will be just 30 percent of the cost while grants will cover the other 70 percent. He also said it’s routine maintenance and consists of mostly crack filling.

Next Steinkamp shared details about the grant application for the ongoing airport layout plan.

“It’s basically recommended to do this for an airport our size every 10 to 15 years and the last one was done in 2010. There are a few projects coming up in the next few years that triggered this,” Steinkamp said.

The project cost for this project is more– coming in at about $420,000– but Steinkamp said it’s roughly 90 percent federally funded with another five percent being funded by the state and five percent locally.

“Our share is a little over $22,000,” Steinkamp said.

He said the council just needed to approve the application and the plans will then be sent to the state and then onto the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The council approved of both the airfield pavement project and airport layout plan grant application.

On Monday the council also heard from interim City Administrator, Jeff O’Neill, about the possibility of establishing a Human Resources Manager position for the city of Fairmont.

“Currently, human resources and the work relating to it are distributed throughout city staff,” O’Neill said.

He said that while that isn’t unusual for a city of Fairmont’s size, with some other upcoming staff changes in Fairmont, the shift of HR duties going under one roof would be the best fit for Fairmont.

“Consequently, the budget impact is minimal if not anything at all. It’s not really an added position, but a reorganization so that we can do our jobs better,” O’Neill said.

He said the new position would be involved with the hiring process, annual employee evaluations and employee benefit communication, plus more.

He asked the council permission to move forward so that he would work with city staff to finalize the job description. First the position will be posted internally and then out in the broader community.

O’Neill also recognized current city staff members Lois Subbert and Darcy Jones who have done the majority of human resources work up until this point.

“The level of expertise and knowledge with this position is relatively high so we’ll make sure we fill it with a person capable of doing it,” O’Neil said.

Council Member Jay Maynard acknowledged that the city does not currently have any sort of employee evaluation in place and said that he believes it’s needed as a matter of best practice.

“As Jeff pointed out, Lois has done a fantastic job, but there’s more to it than just that… having it centralized in one person would be a good step forward for the city,” Maynard said.

Kawecki admitted that she was torn between whether the city should add a Human Resources Manager or a Community Development Director.

“I feel that both positions are so important… if we’re able to find a human resources position, that will give the city administrator more time to focus on the director position. I’m in full support of it after talking with Jeff and hearing both sides,” Kawecki said.

The council approved authorizing O’Neill to move forward with finalizing the job description and moving forward with recruiting for the position.

In other news, the council approved:

— An event permit for Interlaken Heritage Days, June 7 and 8, 2024.

— An event permit for Borderline Cruisers Car Club, Borderline Cruisers Car Show on June 8, 2024.

— An event permit for upcoming Fairmont City Band concerts.

— A temporary on-sale liquor license for Martin County Chapter Pheasants Forever on April 20, 2024.

— A truck chassis purchase and disposal and garbage truck purchase and disposal.

— A tobacco license and license to sell edible products infused with THC and a 3.2 percent off-sale license for CAPL Retail at 407 E. Blue Earth Avenue.

— Awarding a recodification project to American Legal Publishing in the amount of $7,900 and authorized establishment of a city council/charter commission work group.