FAIRMONT– Growth, and some’s frustration with the lack of it, was a topic of conversation among the Fairmont City Council at its second goal setting session on Wednesday.

To start, City Administrator Jason Baker handed Mayor Lee Baarts and the council members a document he made after compiling goals and priority areas the council wants to focus on, which were discussed at the first goal setting session on June 3.

“Looking at the goals, to me it became apparent, they vary in scope and level of detail,” Baker said.

However he said that’s common when it comes to strategic planning and goal setting.

Some of the different goal categories include economic development, community engagement, road plan, LOST funds, code enforcement, budget planning sessions, public safety and communication.

Baker said he took those categories and broke them each into a specific strategic goal statement and then included the measurable and whether the goal was achievable and relevant. This was all done using the SMART framework.

First, they talked about economic growth and housing.

“Economic development and recruitment and housing were high priorities,” Baker said. “We’re looking at priority number one, economic growth and housing.”

The strategic goal then would be to support sustainable population growth and economic development by creating an environment that attracts residents, businesses and investment.

Baarts said, “Councilor Lubenow has brought it up at a few meetings, but we have very few or no new houses built. Very small amounts. I don’t know the last time we had a cul-de-sac built.”

He added that when you drive by other cities you can see development going on and he wondered what the trick was to get that here.

“What do they have that we don’t have to get that done or started?” Baarts asked.

Lubenow said he would like a city staff member to reach out to the city of Madelia to inquire about the development they have happening on the south end of town.

He was curious whether the city put the new streets in on the development.

Council Member Britney Kawecki said that when talking about streets and infrastructure, she believes the city has plenty of lots available to build on and mentioned the Fairlakes extension.

“We have a hard time taking care of the roads and infrastructure we have in Fairmont and I think before the city of Fairmont talks about taking $10 million of money from the state to build more roads and infrastructure, we need to be dealing with other things in the community,” Kawecki said.

She added that that comes back to a Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) which she had strongly advocated work on during the first goal setting session.

“There are plenty of lots and area to build new homes in the city of Fairmont. I think we need to figure out why people aren’t building here,” Kawecki said.

Lubenow said he disagrees that there are many places to build in the city.

“Nobody is going to want it in their neighborhood,” Lubenow said.

Then he said, “I can tell you why nobody wants to build in Fairmont. It’s a hassle… if you talk to contractors and there’s some, not a problem whatsoever. But the majority of contractors I’ve talked to say, ‘if I’m building a project in Fairmont, I add 20 percent because I know by the time I follow Fairmont’s interpretation of the state building code, it’s going to be more expensive.'”

Council Member Jay Maynard said he keeps hearing that but has been asking for specifics and hasn’t been given any. Lubenow ticked off a couple of projects, including Kwik Trip and Cemstone.

After talking some more about growth and development, Kawecki asked what was coming out of the conversation and overall goal setting.

“These have always been our goals… What is going to happen? We did this with Cathy Reynolds (former city administrator) and we came up with a strategic plan and we never talked about it ever again,” Kawecki said. “How are you going to measure economic growth and housing?”

Baker said that strategic goals from six years ago are useless as they should be reevaluated every year. He pointed out that staff isn’t the same as it was six years ago.

“We as staff are going to sit down and go over the same things I’m going over with you and say, ‘Okay, here’s our goals for the city.’ Once we have that, all of that will come back to council to discuss,” Baker said.

Lubenow said he thinks all parties need to come together in the same room to talk.

Council Member James Kotewa pointed out a recent project at the airport seemed successful in that regard as the EDA, building inspector and developers all came together.

“I would consider that a success to move forward,” Kotewa said. “We see that as a council, I believe, as an expectation that that’s what we’re going to expect from city staff.”

Baker pointed out that the council will need to be clear on what it wants before it comes to city staff.

Moving to another topic, the group briefly spoke about the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) funds that were originally intended to be used by the council for a community center but are now undesignated.

“I think we need to start earmarking what we think we want to do with it,” said Lubenow.

“You would think LOST funds should be an easy, cut and dry decision. We have money that’s been collected for many years from anyone purchasing something in Fairmont. It won’t cost us or taxpayers anything. It’s money that we have. It should be pretty easy to figure out that we can improve different areas of our city with LOST funds and here we are, we still haven’t gotten close to deciding what to do with them,” said Baarts.

He added, “There is so much we could do with it… the list goes on. We’ve all seen the list. We should all know what are priorities are and we should be able to vote on it. It should be an easy checker.”

Baker said he didn’t want to get too much into the LOST funds discussion at the goal setting session but that it would be discussed by the council in the future.

The group also spent some time talking about community engagement and most agreed that the city should focus on getting information out about projects around the city. At the first goal setting session Baker had suggested the city hire a public information officer for that purpose.

In discussing code enforcement, Kawecki said it’s a huge priority for her and that she thinks three people could be doing code enforcement. She shared the same sentiment at the first goal setting session.

Public safety was also touched on. Kotewa said that no one could say that the fire department or police department were failing in any direction though he said the facilities weren’t the best.

“I think the people who do the public safety and fire safety are outstanding and I think for the most part our equipment is pretty good,” Lubenow said. “Facilities, yes. I think the county commissioner race, a lot of it will be based on who wants a new jail and who doesn’t so that will be interesting to see how that plays out.”

Kawecki said, “I think it comes down to community engagement. It’s what the taxpayers want to pay for and they’re tired of paying for fancy buildings that aren’t needed and that’s where I think a needs analysis will tell us what’s important.”

Council Member Wayne Hasek said that most citizens haven’t been inside the jail to see the needs. Kawecki pointed out that it has been in compliance with the state.

“That doesn’t make it anymore safe,” said Maynard.

At the end of the session, Kotewa said he’s like to schedule some more work sessions to talk about specific projects. He asked if the council could list some priorities to discuss.

Kawecki said she’d like to see the hockey/ice arena contract and that she’d also like to start talking about the budget soon. Several councilors said they want to talk about the LOST funds.

Baker told the council he would work on getting the goals together for the first city council meeting in July.