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FAIRMONT-- The Fairmont City Council gathered on Tuesday evening for a goal setting/Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) workshop during which time councilors had the opportunity to identify what they each thought the city should focus on. The general consensus was that roads should be a top priority.
City Administrator Matt Skaret opened the meeting and asked each councilor to go around and list what their priorities are.
Council Member Britney Kawecki pretty quickly identified her top three priorities-- water quality, roads and budget.
"I think the citizens want to see us take care of our budget and reduce our budget and tighten up our belts," Kawecki said.
Councilor Jay Maynard said he thinks the city needs to do a better job of maintaining and improving what it has.
"We need to do things right and keep up with maintenance schedules and replace equipment when it wears out...," Maynard said.
He also said the city needs to watch what it spends and to spend money more wisely.
Council Member Michele Miller agreed with Maynard's thought and said that her top three priorities are lakes, roads and infrastructure.
Councilor Wayne Hasek stressed that streets are his top priority.
Council Member Randy Lubenow questioned some future big projects like city hall improvements and fire station improvements. He also had a pretty lengthy list on areas he'd like to see the city focus on which included roads, the building department, the rental ordinance and the tree dump.
Skaret then invited Public Works Director Matthew York to go over what the needs are concerning streets and infrastructure.
When looking at upcoming potential projects, York said that next year Lake Avenue could be redone but he noted that it's a large project and would cost roughly $7.5 million. However he said some grant funds and state dollars could potentially be used toward the project to lower the city's portion.
"Moving forward after that, Blue Earth Avenue in 2026 and Park Street in 2026," York said.
He said that when talking about road projects, one major thing that needs to be considered is that there is a difference between what people see, such as the top surface of the road, and what's underneath the road, such as utilities which the city needs to consider.
"When you're dealing with infrastructure that's 100 years old, we need to look at that," York said.
He spoke about the street rating process, which is done every two years and is currently underway this summer.
"As we look at these projects and the amount that we've traditionally spent, between $1.5 to $2 million on a year to year basis, this total amount here, minus utilities... we're pushing $75 million. That's roads that we need to have done sooner rather than later," York said.
When determining what roads need to be repaired, York said they look at the age of the road, the scoring of the road, the utilities under the road and the money available to be spent.
"I think the concern is... obviously our infrastructure is old... the concern is, I feel like the citizen's complaint is that our main thoroughfares are in poor condition and we're spending the $1.45 million on Faireview... where I think people feel that that money can be spent on the main roads running through town," Kawecki said.
She said she hears citizens make comments, comparing roads in other communities to Fairmont's.
York again tried to explain the reasoning behind how road work is identified. Miller spoke up and asked the council to remember that certain city staff's job is to identify work like this.\
"Thank you Matt for explaining all of this to us... although we all agree we want every road done, sitting here and scrutinizing every road on the list and asking priority is not productive," Miller said.
The city's Finance Director, Paul Hoye, was then asked to chime in on financing for these projects. He said that the city has not been putting aside as much money that's needed to fund the road projects.
"For a long time the council's goals were different, they were more worried about our tax levy and keeping our tex levy low and maintenance was probably pushed back more than it should have been," Hoye explained.
Now over the last four or five years he said the city has been slowly increasing its debt service levy but in all honesty he said that inflation has been eating most of it up.
In order to make a big difference and keep up with the streets that need repairs, Hoye said the council will probably need to put aside about $6.5 million a year for the next 10 years. He said that $6.5 million a year is about $5 million more than what the council is currently levying for per year.
"If we were to raise our levy a million dollars, it would be a 14.5 percent levy increase... if we were to do the full $5 million that I think we would need to do to get this done in 10 years, it would be a 73 percent levy increase," Hoye said.
He suggested that over the next five years the city ramps it up to a million dollars a year to help fund future road projects.
Skaret asked the council how comfortable it is with levying extra money for streets.
"If any of us are really serious about roads then we really need to think about it," Miller said.
Next, lakes were discussed. Skaret pointed out that the city does have a Lakes Restoration Fund and a charge of $1 on the monthly utility bill that goes toward it. He said that there's about $250,000 in the budget for 2025 and in the CIP for the lakes.
York said that stormwater is a mayor necessity when it comes to the lakes. He said that there is $1.175 million over a five year period for Curly Leaf Pondweed mitigation and $125,000 for the George Lake Dam inspection and repairs and also a pond dredging program that's been looked at in recent years. Specifically, he said that Luedtke Slough is in need of being dredged, which will help with capacity and water quality issues.
Funding sources became a topic and Lubenow asked what the city can do to bring in new revenue, considering the city is looking at a lot of expenses.
"I'm not sure I'm entirely excited to say this but is a marijuana growing operation
something that we should looked at as being a municipality-- how much would that generate because we don't have substantial growth in new businesses and housing to help increase our overall city worth in property taxes," Lubenow said.
Hoye said that the city does look at revenue sources to fund projects. As an example, he said that right now there's a dollar change for lake restoration on the utility bill but to cover the aforementioned projects it would need to be increased to $4 a month, which would raise an additional $190,000 for the lake restoration fund.
Skaret added that there are water, sewer and stormsewer fees that could be increased. He agreed with Lubenow that the city could look at a cannabis municipality store, though it would come with some challenges.
During the work session equipment upgrades and replacements was also touched on.
York said that a 1990 dump truck with nearly 2,000 miles on it needs to be replaced, along with another old dumptruck. York pointed out that currently many vehicles are on backorder and could take up to two years to arrive after ordered.
"On the park side we also have some vehicles and equipment that we use for our summer employees and regular employees. We have a 1994... that's non-operable," York said.
Looking at the CIP, Kawecki asked if any of the projects could be spread over the next five or six years evenly.
"Something that happens when you're putting together a five year plan is that your needs change constantly. What we have in there for 2025 is what we feel needs to be done now," Hoye said.
As an example, Hoye questioned who could have predicted that the city would need to spend a million dollars to combat Emerald Ash Borer (EAB).
"Things pop up like that," Hoye said.
York added that the city had applied for $1million in grants but was awarded $100,000. That led to an update on the very large project that is taking care of the city's many Ash trees.
Park and Street Superintendent Nick Lardy said that about 1,200 Ash trees have been removed in just the city's parks and that his department has not yet started removing street trees.
York said that the project is so expensive because it includes removal, replacement and future maintenance.
"How many trees will we be replacing?" Kawecki asked.
York said that 55 is required per the grant though he would like to replace more considering 2,000 trees are being removed.
Toward the end of the session the council touched on maintenance of city parks specifically Veteran's Park, and brought up questions regarding some city buildings like the Southern Minnesota Educational Center (SMEC) building and city hall. However, city staff recommended having a separate meeting to discuss facility concerns.