FAIRMONT – Facing two options on how to continue with the Jameson and Bush Mill Circle project, the Fairmont HRA made its decision on Monday.

Before the discussion occurred, Habitat for Humanity of Martin-Faribault Counties Executive Director Staci Thompson spoke on potentially collaborating with the HRA on future housing, including Jameson and Bush Mill Circle.

“I have a lot of colleagues who work very closely with their HRAs and their community action housing groups,” she said. “Before I put a whole ton of work into it, I wanted to come and see what you were doing and thinking.”

Another part of the motivation Thompson said she had for potentially doing this is the rising cost of building materials. After moving a house to Truman this summer, she said they’ll have to stop doing house-moving projects for now because it now costs $100,000 just to construct the basement.

“It’s sad when you’ve got $100,000 in before you can get a wall up,” Thompson said.

Board Chair Clare Mosloski said they’re still narrowing down what they want to do, but they are interested in a potential partnership.

“We’re narrowing down what design we want,” she said. “We haven’t really gotten into the financial pieces of that yet, but when we get to that step, we’ll for sure talk about it and see where we go from there.”

Part of that narrowing process was the choice between 28 and 44-unit options for Jameson and Bush Mill Circle.

The 28-unit option would revolve around a one-road cul-de-sac off of Fairlakes Avenue, with housing on each side of the road and around the end of the street. The 44-unit option would have one road in an oval formation instead of a straight road, making more room for additional units.

Mosloski said she preferred the smaller scope of 28 units over 44.

“We don’t want to bite off more than we can chew,” she said.

Board Member Ron Kopischke agreed, saying he believes 28 is the appropriate size to start with.

HRA Executive Director Gail Diede then outlined some additional details and pieces they decided to cut from the project.

“When you look at the [28], open space there, that probably is going to be an area where, if we’re required to do a retaining pond. I’m pretty sure they’re going to, they will. We talked about geothermal, or maybe solar. I did do some research on that. If we do not intend to keep ownership forever, that might be something we really need to think about, because reading up on that, if you do that, you don’t find many people that want to buy that and take on that responsibility,” she said.

While it was initially considered a good idea, Mosloski agreed that it turned out to have more downsides than they wished to take on.

Board Member Jerry Edwards motioned to approve the 28-unit plan, and he was seconded by Diana Bradley. The motion was approved unanimously by the HRA.

The HRA also voted to change from their current CD savings account to finding the best possible savings option moving forward. Diede said they only had a little bit of time to make their decision.

“The CD right now, I’ve got till the 19th to cash out or reinvest,” she said. “We’ve got them coming up to mature in September, October and then January of next year. The CD rate right now would be at a 3.7 if we chose to take that $180,000 and reinvest. I need to know, we want to keep doing CDs, or if you want me to come up with the best savings?”

City Council Representative Randy Lubenow said it seems like a lot of time is spent renewing CDs. Bradley asked if the motion could be made to switch to finding the savings option at the best available rate instead of renewing the CD, and subsequently made that motion. Board Member Deb Goerndt seconded, and the board unanimously approved taking this action.