ABOVE: Work on the Gomsrud Park north parking lot and two boat ramps will begin next week. This week, a yellow floating silt fence to stop silt and debris from going farther in the lake was put in on Budd Lake in anticipation of the start of the project.

FAIRMONT– Next week, work will begin on the replacement of the north parking lot at Gomsrud Park and removal and replacement of boat ramps on both the Hall Lake and Budd Lake sides of Gomsrud Park. The start of this project comes after several years of discussion and planning by both the park board and city council.

In 2022, the city had signed a contract with SGA Group for planning, concept, schematic designs and community engagement for Gomsrud Park improvements and parking lot repairs, which were to be considered phase one of a larger project.

However, when it was determined that dire repairs on the channel wall between Hall Lake and Budd Lake were needed, the parking lot repairs were pushed to the back burner and the council approved putting some of the park improvement funds toward the channel wall repairs.

The channel wall repairs were completed in 2024.

In May of 2024, city engineers Bolton & Menk presented the council with four different designs for the north parking lot, but the council could not agree on a best design and after instructing Bolton & Menk to work with city staff on tweaking the designs, a joint meeting took place at Gomsrud Park with the Fairmont City Council and Fairmont Park Board on June 6, 2024.

At that special meeting, in a 4-1 vote, the council approved of one of the designs and authorized the city to advertise for bids. However, when it went out for bids late last summer, the low bid came in over $200,000 over the engineer’s estimate.

“The city council rejected bids and directed staff to rebid in the fall for a summer project beginning after July 4th,” said York.

He said this year the project came in almost $120,000 less. The project was ultimately awarded to Ulland Brothers $825,448. It is being paid for with liquor store funds.

While expected to start soon after the Fourth of July, York said the project was delayed due to the contractor’s request, though it didn’t change the project completion date, which is December of this year.

Speaking more to specifics of the project, York said, “It’s a reconstruction which will include the pull through parking spots as well as the storm water retention basin and new ADA accessible ramp to go down to the Let’s Go Fishing dock.”

There will be 17 pull through spots and 14 regular vehicle parking spots for a total of 31 parking spots, which is down from what’s currently there.

“It’s going to be less parking, but it’s because we have to do the stormwater retention pond,” York explained.

That is due to environmental regulations that the city needs to comply with.

“When you’re doing a reconstruction of any roadway or parking lot, you have to meet whatever the different codes and standards are for different bodies whether it’s the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) or Department of Natural Resources (DNR), so we have to engineer our projects to meet all of those standards,” York said.

The planning process also took awhile as the city wanted input from both the city council and the park board because it is for Gomsrud Park, the biggest and most utilized park in the city.

“We’re trying to do it later in the season to get it in between the slower time of the parks. We didn’t want it during opening day for fishing and we didn’t want it for the Fourth of July. In order to do the project at any time, this is what we have to do,” York said.

The boat ramps will be reset, making the Budd Lake ramp a little longer than what’s currently there. It’s likely the ramps will be closed during construction and the city encourages people to check its Facebook page and website at fairmont.org for updates.

“If it rains it could be pushed back a week or two,” York said.