BLUE EARTH– The Faribault County Board met for its first meeting of 2026 on Tuesday. The first item of business was to elect a new board chairman.

Bruce Anderson was nominated and elected to be the chairman for 2026. Bill Groskreutz was elected to the position of vice chairman.

Public Works director/county engineer April Wellman attended the meeting to give a brief forecast of the projects slated to be undertaken in 2026.

“Paving is set to begin this spring on County Road (CR) 19,” Wellman said. “We also plan to do a mill and overlay on CR 23 from CR16 to the Interstate 90 north ramps.”

Wellman informed the board there are five bridges in the county scheduled to be replaced in 2026.

“Three of these are township bridges – one each in Lura, Delavan and Pilot Grove townships,” Wellman commented. “The other two are on county roads. One is on CR 2 and the other is on CR 8.”

Wellman also shared that Kiester and Bricelyn are the two cities where the county will be doing some work.

“The rest of the items for this year include some township bridge deck mill and overlays along with seal coating and county-wide striping,” Wellman stated. “We also need to advertise for fuel bids.”

Following her report, the board unanimously passed a motion allowing Wellman to advertise for bidding the 2026 projects as presented to the board.

In other business, the board:

— Approved the 2026 contract for legal services between Faribault County and Faribault County Soil and Water Conservation District.

— Set the regular County Board meeting dates for the first and third Tuesdays of each month, beginning at 9 a.m.

— Scheduled a work session for the board to discuss property valuations and taxes. It will be held on Feb. 3, at 1 p.m.

— Approved training requests for Brady Rauenhorst and Kara Bendickson of the county assessor’s office. They will receive training in order to prepare for the Board of Appeal season and on dealing with disasters.

— Approved the request of county auditor/treasurer Chuck Schrader to attend the 2026 MACO (Minnesota Association of County Officers) Annual Conference.