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FAIRMONT--The Fairmont City Council held a workshop on Wednesday to begin discussion about the 2027 budget. The preliminary budget does not need to be set until September and the final budget and levy won't be adopted until December.
In the two hours allowed for the meeting, council did not get through the entire agenda. Council members Wayne Hasek and Jay Maynard were absent for the budget meeting.
To start the meeting, Finance Director, Paul Hoye provided a draft of the five year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) but said they would focus on projects outlined in 2027 for the purpose of the budget meeting.
City Administrator Jason Baker then touched on three different master plans. Project number one is a comprehensive parks system master plan that would provide a 10 to 20 year capital planning framework for maintaining, improving, replacing and expanding parks, trails, boat launches, playgrounds, shelters and other recreational amenities. In 2027 $90,000 is budgeted for it and Baker said it could be covered by some of the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) funds as it deals with parks, which is an approved area to spend the funds on. He said other grant opportunities could be looked at as well.
"This plan aligns with the goals and priorities of the council as far as community engagement and quality of life," Baker said.
Project number two is a facilities condition assessment. Baker said that an assessment has been done on a handful of buildings in 2021 but that this would cover all of the city's facilities, new and old.
"The assessment will allow the city to transition from reactive repairs to planned facilities maintenance and replacement," Baker said.
The cost would be $75,000 for the assessment and another $30,000 for an energy audit.
Project three is an operational and staffing needs assessment which Baker said would essentially compare Fairmont's operations to that of other comparable communities.
While Baker didn't talk about them, the city hall facility and ice arena were also listed under general government buildings. Hoye said that there is both a new city hall facility and city hall update included, both of which have different costs, as the council has not indicated which route it wants to go. For the ice arena, improvements that were identified by a past study were included.
Council Member Britney Kawecki said she thought all three of the projects Baker talked about should not be in the CIP. She also had issues with city hall and the ice arena being listed.
"We talked about the needs analysis, the space analysis, the Brunton study, the Wold study... a lot of things have changed in regards to the possible three facilities in one," Kawecki said.
Several years ago the council was looking at the possibility of housing city hall, the police department and fire department in one building.
"I feel that budgeting for something when we have no idea where we're at, I feel that we need to be putting it out and saying, 'how are we going to be funding this?'"
She said that until they have a plan she does not want to see it included in the budget.
As for the ice arena, with $215,000 included for 2027, Kawecki said it should not be included, especially not until council sees an updated contract.
"What if we agree to a contract that we're no longer in ownership of it and we're only going to pay to paint the beams?" Kawecki asked.
While she thought the parks master plan was a good idea, she thought it was something for the future.
"I would like to see us applying for grants... in my opinion, $90,000 for something like that going into the capital levy is not a useful purpose for a tax levy," she said.
Similarly, a facilities condition assessment was not something she felt should be included, nor a staffing needs assessment.
"At this point in time, in a city where our population is not growing... coming back and saying 'we need more staff, we need more this, we need more that,'... in a city like this where the taxes are going up, up, up and our tax base is going down... for me, these three things that we just touched on, plus the ice facility, plus the city hall updates, for me, all those things, in my opinion, need to go," Kawecki said.
Mayor Lee Baarts said he thought it was hard to plan for some of the facilities when it's not known what the county is going to do as the Fairmont Police Department is housed in the Law Enforcement Center, along with the Martin County Sheriff's Office, which the county owns.
"It's hard to decide whether we should build our own or a multi-use facility when we don't know what's happening with the county," Baarts said.
Council Member James Kotewa, who previously worked for the Fairmont Police Department, said that it is not in an optimal place.
"There are advantages of sharing a building with the sheriff's department, there's also advantages of having a public safety building. We're heavily dependent upon what the county wants to do," Kotewa said.
On the topic of city hall, Council Member Randy Lubenow said that whenever they've talked about moving out of city hall, some argue that it's in the best location.
"I'd like to know where we think we're going to find a location as good as this," Lubenow said.
Similar to Kawecki, Lubenow did not think a parks master plan was needed and he questioned the need of the other assessments as well.
"It just seems like we have a lot of problems and we're always doing assessments to fix them, but they never really get fixed," Lubenow said.
Of the projects discussed, Hoye said he thought they should still be included in the CIP but maybe not as 2027 projects until council decides what It wants to do regarding facilities.
Next, different department heads talked about their various needs and the costs associated with them for 2027.
For the fire department, there is just five sets of bunker gear budgeted for 2027, though $2.1 million is needed for a new ladder truck in 2029. Currently about $1.3 million is raised for it and it was said the truck should be ordered soon, as it will take two to three years for it to be delivered.
For the street department, several pieces of equipment, including a 1993 truck, a dump truck plow truck, in the amount of $260,000 was listed for 2027, as well as a 1984 CAT grader in the amount of $450,000.
However, Kawecki said just because something is old doesn't mean it needs to be replaced. She said they need to look at how much use equipment is getting.
"That is why a needs analysis is so important," Kawecki said. "What can be leased, what can be rented, what can be eliminated?"
Public Works Director Matthew York said that an analysis of the vehicles were included for council in their packets and that each were rated.
"We do believe we have a plan of attack and are working off of the approved schedule of vehicle replacement that was given to us by the city council," York said.
Moving to the street department, Civil Engineer Tyler Cowing touched on the projects, and their costs, planned for 2027.
"Approximately $5 million in 2027. That would include Park Street, Fairview Avenue, Parkwood Place, Orient Street and a variety of seal coat projects," Cowing said.
Lubenow said, "So we pushed off Park Street and Orient Street. Is it safe to assume by January the council will have bids to approve?"
Cowing confirmed that that should happen.
In the parks department budget, replacement of a few vehicles are scheduled for 2027 including a 1995 Chevy used by the city forester, for $60,000, a 2002 Ford F150 for general use in the amount of $55,000 and a 2002 John Deere 1445 mower unit in the amount of $55,000.
As for park amenities, for 2027 some new playground equipment for 10th street park is currently scheduled.
"Replacing park equipment is probably going to be an ongoing thing, probably every year for sure," Lardy said.
The skate park was also touched on. York said right now Bolton and Menk is working on some conceptual plans for a skate park design.
"The goal is to begin some design work next year to be able to bring a plan late next year to the city council for approval for 2028," York said.
Finally in the park department, to continue to address Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), $250,000 is in the 2027 budget for removal and replacement. Lardy said they still have about 250 stumps that need to be taken care of and abut 50 boulevard trees and more still in some parks to remove.
"We've already done 2,200 trees in the parks though," Lardy said.
The council will hold another budget workshop from 4-6 p.m. on Aug. 25