FAIRMONT–The Fairmont Park Board met Tuesday and while it did not have a quorum and could not vote, it still discussed several matters including the status of the Gomsrud Park project.

Board Member Jodie Whitmore said that she had read about what action was taken at the last city council meting and was confused because the project was not going as planned.

“We’ve had this project planned for years. It’s been in the budget for years and cut once and then it just got scrapped at the last council meeting. They can’t ever make a decision. I thought it was all done on the boat landing and I’m wondering how this keeps getting pushed back when we should have had it done already,” Whitmore said.

She pointed out that the park board had previously recommended approval of the project.

Conversations about the project started in 2022 and preliminary designs were shared with the park board. They were also put out to the community for public input. While work on the west parking lot and boat ramps were supposed to start last summer, they were put on hold as emergency measures instead had to be taken to repair the channel wall between Hall Lake and Budd Lake. Funds earmarked for the improvements were put toward that project.

On Tuesday Randy Lubenow, who is a council member serving as park board liaison, pointed out that the board can only make recommendations, but doesn’t need to consider the budget as much as the council needs to.

“I thought it was in the budget?” Whitmore asked.

Public Works Director, Matthew York, agreed that it was in the budget but that the channel wall repairs needed to be made first. He said that the Gomsrud Park projects were brought back to the council at the April 8 meeting but some council members didn’t like the designs so the city again got together with Bolton & Menk to work on a redesign, which was presented at the May 13 city council meeting.

“There are still members of the council that don’t like the design,” York said.

He said staff is trying to come to an understand on what both the council and the public want at the site in terms of parking spots both vehicles and trailers.

“Sometimes you just have to make a decision,” said Board Member Jane Kolofoski.

As a member of the Fairmont Lakes Foundation Inc., Kolofski said that many people were able to follow parking instructions at the recent spring fishing tournament at Gomsrud Park.

Whitmore said she thought the boat ramps were the biggest concern. York said that if the parking lot is redone, which is greatly needed, it will need to be raised two feet to meet regulations, which will change the scope of the ramp.

“Do we fix the ramp without the parking lot? If we don’t do anything with the parking lot now and fix the ramp, that’s money and resources spent. If we do the parking lot (later), the ramp won’t match up,” York explained.

Finally, York shared that there will be a meeting on June 6 at Gomsrud Park that both council members and park board members are invited to attend to share their thoughts on the project.

The board also heard a short, informal presentation from York, who spoke about the possibility of transforming Bullhead Park by George Lake.

“As part of an energy project, we want to build a substation west of (County Road) 39 near the water towers in order to help that area have more electric and growth,” York said.

However, in order to do that, he said a substation is needed, which will go onto the Harsco property.

York indicated that preliminary designs are done and that at some point the park board will likely be asked for its blessing to take the property off of a park status and hand it over to SMMPA (Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency).

He said that the public can still utilize the dock and fishing pier and that there was still potential to put in something like a pollinator plot.

The topic is expected to come back at the June 18 park board meeting