Trending
FAIRMONT-- After the Fairmont City Council approved a new one year contract with the Fairmont Ag Society (Martin County Fair Board) on Monday, it discussed a new contract with the Fairmont Youth Hockey Association for use of the Martin County Arena.
Back in 1987 the city and the association first entered into an agreement and City Administrator Jason Baker said that the fair board has been part of a contract but in redoing them, the two organizations were split so that each would have a contract with the city.
"This proposed agreement authorizes the association to use the Martin County Arena for hockey, skating, tournaments... from Sept. 15 through April 15 of 2027 as a one season agreement and does not renew automatically," Baker said.
He further explained that the association will pay the operating expenses and utilities including with its use and that the city and fair board will remain responsible for structural components and deferred maintenance.
"The budget impact for this, we talked about the $30,000 already budgeted for this in 2026 for hockey," Baker said. "The 2027 installments should be appropriated and carried forward consistent with the city's accounting treatment."
He added that the agreement does not obligate the city to continue with the $30,000 contribution after April 15, 2027.
After details of the updated contract were shared, Council Member Randy Lubenow said, "this stinks that the day before the hockey association is supposed to move into the hockey arena, this is the first time that we're dealing with this."
It's the same sentiment that Council Member Britney Kawecki expressed earlier in the meeting when the council viewed the contract with the fair board.
Lubenow made a motion to approve the contract, which was seconded by Council Member Jay Maynard.
However City Attorney David Assaf said the motion should be made contingent upon approval of the other contract with the fair board, given the changes made with that contract. Lubenow said he didn't think that needed to be a part of the motion as the city owns the facility and can decide who uses it.
"Council may approve it, I was just trying to head off if they are any concerns by the fair board on the agreement and the use agreement in the event that there's a dispute in terms of their access to the property," Assaf said.
Lubenow said he would like the keep his motion. The motion passed 4-1 with Kawecki opposed.
Moving to another matter, the council heard from Public Works Director, Matthew York, who asked for approval of a task order with Bolton & Menk in the amount of $24,500 for pickleball facility design and bidding services.
The four courts are to be placed at Jeffery Kot Fields Soccer Complex, with the layout providing space for possible expansion in the future.
Kawecki questioned why Bolton & Menk would be doing the work. She said that when the council selected the firm as city engineer, it was with the understanding that they would be doing typical city work.
"I don't know think that pickleball is necessarily city engineer work. Troy (Nemmers) is overseeing this project but he's not doing this project," she said.
BEI, another firm out of Spirit Lake, Iowa, that also sent in a proposal of $28,000, excluding geotechnical soil borings, was the company Kawecki felt like the council could go with. If not them, at least another company.
"I think we have time to go out for bids and I think it's in the best interest of the taxpayers to do so," Kawecki said.
York said that when Bolton & Menk was hired as a city engineer, it was also discussed that smaller projects in the city would go to Bolton & Menk for a variety of reasons.
"While you may not consider it a city engineering project, I guess anything the city would be engineering would be considered city engineering projects," he said. "Utilizing Bolton & Menk is beneficial to the city. They are our city engineer. They are in the city."
He talked about the delay in the timeline that would happen if the city needed to go out for a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the project.
Council member Jay Maynard approved of the task order and Lubenow seconded it. The motion passed 4-1 with Kawecki opposed.
In other business:
-- New full-time Fairmont Police Officer, Seth Reinke, was sworn in during the meeting.
-- Representative Bjorn Olson provided a brief legislative update to the council.
-- Mayor Lee Baarts provided a brief summary of City Administrator Jason Baker's performance evaluation, which was conducted on Aug. 24 during a closed session meeting. Baker said that he and the council appreciate Baker's leadership and look forward to him continuing his employment with the city of Fairmont. Another evaluation will be done on Nov. 23.
-- The council approved in a 4-1 vote of David Drown Associates (DDA) to conduct an executive search for the community and economic development director position at a cost of $19,000.
-- The council approved awarding the sand filter replacement project at the Fairmont Aquatic Park in the amount of $239,708 to Horizon Pools. The sand filters are original to the facility and date back to 1999.