FAIRMONT– The Fairmont City Council on Monday once again considered an objection from a property at 1300 Lake Avenue regarding its assessment from the 2025 improvement program.

The 1300 Lake Avenue property, known as the Senne Farm and owned by DFP Limited Partnership, spans more than 73 acres and had an original proposed special assessment with a 5 percent interest of $395,237.05 over 15 years, or just a special assessment of $274,705.38, which is based on the city’s assessment policy.

The public hearing on the 2025 improvement program was originally held on March 23, 2026 at which point six objections were considered. The hearing for those six continued until the April 13, 2026 meeting. The hearing on the 1300 Lake Avenue property continued onto April 27, 2026 and again on June 8, 2026.

Finally, at the June 22, 2026 meeting, the city council further continued the public hearing to the July 13, 2026 meeting to allow a separate appraisal to be completed and presented to the council.

The property owners at 1300 Lake Avenue from the beginning had argued that the Lake Avenue reconstruction project had not benefitted their property or increased the market value of it.

On Monday, Fairmont’s Finance Director, Paul Hoye, said, “We’ve had several meetings and have had to continue the hearing a couple of times to put together an appraiser.”

The city’s private, certified appraiser from Aurora Valuation and Consulting, which specializes in rural property, conducted an appraisal of 1300 Lake Avenue and determined that after the improvements were made, there was a $39,100 increase in the market value of the property.

Hoye said that staff was recommending that the council reduce the assessment from $274,705.38 to $39,100.

“It’s still their position that it should be at zero,” Hoye said.

An owner and representative for the property at 1300 Lake Avenue, Tom Dougherty, also gave a recap of events thus far and then said, “Ultimately on April 27, the council said, ‘alright, we’re going to do a before and after,’ and that was the right thing to do,” he said.

He said the most productive meeting between them and staff so far have been after the Aurora appraisal came in to go over what they thought the faults were. Then Tom said they went ahead and did their own appraisal soon after that.

Tom further said that they were under the understanding that there would be further discussion after that. He said that last week he sent Hoye and City Administrator Jason Baker a letter and did not hear back. He said he reached out a second time and did not hear back.

“I tend to think that that further discussion would have been helpful but apparently staff is recommending that you accept the Aurora conclusion, which I think would be a mistake,” he said.

Tom asked the council to reject staff’s recommendation and listed some faults they saw with the Aurora appraisal and the analysis of industrial land, among other matters.

Another representative and owner of the property, Colin Dougherty, spent time speaking out against the assessment as well. He reiterated that their appraisal came to the conclusion that the assessment should be zero due to no increase to the market value. He also voiced dissatisfaction with the recent lack of communication from the city in the process.

“Whatever the council decides tonight, we’d ask that staff be redirected to respond to that draft agreement because right now, the process this council has ordered has simply gone silent, radio silent. We’ve been ghosted,” Colin said.

Both he and Tom mentioned litigation and made it clear they would not settle for any other amount than zero.

Following the nearly hour-long presentation, Council Member Britney Kawecki said she was disappointed that the property owners had reached out to the city recently and did not get a response.

She said she agreed with the results of the Dougherty’s private appraisal and that the city needs to think about how it’s going to move forward on road improvements on agricultural land.

“I do think there are a lot of inconsistencies,” Kawecki said.

She made a motion to reject the staff recommendation and to make the assessment zero dollars.

Council Member Jay Maynard said he felt that the private appraisal done by the Doughertys also had some fatal flaws.

“I think we’d be foolish to pay for an appraisal and then ignore it,” Maynard said of the city’s appraisal by Aurora.

He also said he would not vote to drop the assessment to zero.

Once the public hearing was officially closed, Kawecki’s motion was considered. Council Member Randy Lubenow seconded it. In a roll call vote, the motion failed 3-2 with Maynard, Council Member James Kotewa and Council Member Wayne Hasek against it.

Maynard made a motion to adopt resolution 2026-28 amending the assessment roll for the Lake Avenue Improvement project for 1300 Lake Avenue. In a roll call vote, the motion failed 3-2 with Kotewa, Lubenow and Kawecki against it.

Kotewa made a motion to reject objections by the Doughertys and to have a copy of the city’s private appraisal from Aurora made available and to be open to settlement conversations. Maynard seconded it.

However, the city’s attorney, David Assaf of Flaherty and Hood, took issue with the council closing the public hearing without accepting or rejecting the assessment and questioned what Kotewa wanted. Kotewa said he wanted to try to avoid litigation.

“I understand the motion is to reject the objection to the appraisal and to direct staff to continue with the reassessment of the property and continue discussion with the property owner towards deferral agreement or some sort of settlement,” Assaf said, which Kotewa agreed with.

City Administrator Jason Baker also had issues with the motion and said he wanted to guidelines as to how far the talks with the Doughertys would go.

“I can’t go with zero. I was born and raised (here) and think that’s a prime property…. If we can come up with a settlement, I would rather see a settlement before we bring it back again,” Kotewa said.

In a roll call vote, the motion passed 3-2 with Kawecki and Lubenow opposed.