FAIRMONT– Consideration of a bike share program went to the Fairmont City Council on Monday. The request, which came from Project 1590’s Kids Just Want to Have Fun committee, first went to the Park Board in the summer of 2022.

Public Works Director, Matthew York, said that the group has been working on applying for a Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) grant that would provide $10,000 toward the project and that the city has been asked to help out by holding the liability insurance, having staff monitor the app/website to make any maintenance work orders, installing a base station on city property (Aquatic Park) and storing bikes during the off-season (biked used Memorial Day through Labor Day).

York said he went to meet with a coordinator in the city of St. James last week to learn about their bike set-up as they have a similar program.

“There will be no liability increases in our insurance plan and no budgetary impact for the 2025 year if we are awarded the full $10,000 SHIP grant,” York said.

Kids Just Want to Have Fun Committee Member, Betsy Tino, told the council it was likely familiar with the group as it’s responsible for the indoor playground at Five Lakes Centre and the mini golf course next to the Fairmont Aquatic Park.

Tino shared some information about the proposed bikes, which would come through a company called On Bike Share. They are proposing to buy five bikes to start off.

“The rider downloads the app for free… the app keeps track of all the check outs and returns,” Tino said.

While it’s free to use, Tino said every rider 18 plus has to sign a liability waiver and put in credit card information so that if there is damage to the bike while they’re riding it, they would be responsible for the damages.

Council Member Britney Kawecki thanked the group for continuing to bring the idea back for consideration.

“We’re excited to introduce something that involves the whole family. There’s a lot of kids that have bikes but parents don’t always have bikes so you can go to The Aquatic Park, grab a bike for a parent and go on a wonderful trail ride. I’m excited for the whole family aspect,” Tino said.

Mayor Lee Baarts asked how long the program has been going in St. James. York said that the city has had its program going since May and has had 110 rides to date.

York said that he thought it was a good idea to work with Kids Just Want to Have Fun on the project and to share the load so that it wasn’t just something else for city staff to handle.

“I think we can work together so it’s low burden on both sides,” York said.

Tino added that the committee is willing to help with whatever is needed to start the program and maintain its success.

In a unanimous vote, the council approved entering into an agreement on the bike share program.

Moving to other matters, the council discussed the 2025 budget. The council previously talked about the budget in the last regular meeting and in a budget workshop earlier in the summer.

Skaret said that the council was required to certify the preliminary budget by Sept. 30 of each year.

“Once the levy has been certified, we can always lower it in December– we just can’t increase it,” Skaret said.

He said that at the July 23 workshop, the main consensus among the council was that roads needed to be a bigger focus. As a result, the council was looking at approving a 9.1 percent levy increase, though Skaret noted that 5.8 percent of that, or $400,000, would go solely to the street improvement program.

“This would increase our funding for our program from $1.6 million to $2 million per year… this isn’t going to catch us up by any means, but it’s a start,” Skaret said.

Finance Director Paul Hoye then went over some more details of the budget. Hoye said that the general fund revenues include two main sources– local government aid and property taxes. For the first, there would only be an additional $19,000 in 2025 and that property taxes would be up about $200,000 in total with the 9.1 percent levy increase.

“Really the majority of the increases in expenses we’re seeing in the general fund for 2025 is related to personnel costs,” Hoye said, explaining that it’s due to scheduled wage adjustments.

License and permits and charges for services and fines are comparable to the 2024 budget.

“Overall we have a balanced budget in our general fund. Both revenues and expenses are going up about $340,000 or 3.2 percent for 2025,” Hoye said.

As for expenses, Hoye noted an additional cost in the community development director position, as that was changed from the originally scheduled coordinator to a director, which comes with a higher wage.

He said that public safety is up 2.4 percent and public works is up 3.6 percent and that there is additional money set aside in the engineering department for outside engineering for the street improvement program.

“Lake Avenue is going to be a really large project and the cost of design and engineering for that also increases,” Hoye said.

Equipment maintenance is also up across the board and an additional $25,000 has been budgeted for repairs and maintenance.

Moving to special revenue funds, which includes economic development, Southern Minnesota Educational Campus (SMEC), airport and lake restoration, Hoye said that there is little change from 2024.

“We do anticipate a slight increase in our local option sales tax revenue that we’re receiving,” Hoye noted.

He also said another area of change is under charge for services which is related to a new initiative the city is taking on to help with water quality.

“We looked at what we can do for handling Curly Leaf Pondweed that we’ve experienced over the last couple of summers… we looked at adding an additional $200,000 in 2025 to handle removing some of it throughout the lakes,” Hoye said.

There is currently a $1 monthly charge on resident’s utility bills that goes toward lake restoration but in order to fund the additional $2000,000, Hoye said the fee is being raised to $4 a month.

In closing, Hoye said said that at the Dec. 9 meeting, which is the annual truth in taxation meeting, the budget will officially be approved after the public has the opportunity to provide its input.

“Again, we can lower the levy at that point, but we can’t increase it,” said Hoye.

Kawecki said, “obviously I would like to see the budget lower. I think the citizens of Fairmont would like to see the budget lower.”

She asked several questions, including one about money set aside for downtown beautification.

“We now have a new Community Development Director and… downtown is in his scope and downtown is in our (2040) Comprehensive Plan and it’s referenced there,” Kawecki said.

She also added that there are other groups focused on downtown and she thinks collaboration is needed to work with them on a plan.

“Instead of just saying we’re going to take $1.2 million and throwing them at the sidewalks and lighting, I believe that it would be better to say, ‘let’s take $75,000 or $100,000’ and actually (create) a plan for what we’d like to do downtown,” Kawecki said.

Switching to the topic of Emerald Ash Borer, Kawecki said that she thought too much money was being put toward the problem and that it could be re-assessed in 2026.

“I think we should be thinking about this and saying $150,000 for trees and maintenance would be enough when we have the staff and we have the equipment,” Kawecki said.

Finally, Kawecki agreed that she would like to see work done on the roads and that constituents have made comments regarding the poor condition of the roads, too. She suggested that the city have a work session discussing what roads the council would like to have done.

York said it’s not just the road surface they’re talking about, but what’s underneath the road, too.

“There is a method to it… What we’re trying to do is take a wholistic look at how to put the road projects together,” York said.

Council Member Jay Maynard said he was sympathetic to the argument that no one likes to see taxes go up.

“At the same time, we’ve all been hit by inflation…. I don’t think that kicking cans down the road is going to solve this problem. We can’t tell the Emerald Ash Borers, ‘hey guys, stop for a year.’ Whether we like it or not, we to have to spend that money,” Maynard said.

He said that he did not believe there were any items in the budget that were truly optional.

Council Member Michele Miller agreed with everything Maynard said and pointed out that the council did talk extensively at the budget workshop about its desire to improve the roads and that the work would increase the levy.

“A 9.1 percent increase to fix roads, it’s going to happen. Why did we have a goal setting session if we’re not going to move forward with roads?” Miller asked.

In a unanimous vote, the council approved that the proposed property tax levy be certified to the Martin County Auditor. The council also approved the preliminary 2025 budget.

In other action, the council:

— Removed item 9C, approving an update to the Special Assessment Policy “Exhibit A,” by a unanimous vote.

— Recognized several employees for their years of service, including: Miles Heidi, Electric Department, 35 years; Nick Lardy, Public Works Department, 20 years; Scott Becker, Public Works Department (Parks), 15 years; Tyler Osborn, Public Works Department (Parks), 10 years.

— Approved the MnDOT Aeronautics companion grant agreement and resolution for the airport layout plan/master plan update project.