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FAIRMONT-- The Fairmont City Council on Monday had a discussion and consideration of next steps regarding the fair board/hockey association agreements.
At its meeting on Sept. 14, the council approved a one year contract with the Fairmont Ag Society (Martin County Fair Board) for continued use of the Martin County Arena. However, the contract was approved with an amendment that the repair of steel beams, and the cost associated with it, not be included in the contract. The council at that meeting also approved a one year contract with the Fairmont Youth Hockey Association.
City Attorney David Assaf with Flaherty and Hood started the discussion on Monday by saying that the agreement, which had an amendment related to requested repairs on the beams in the arena, was rejected by the fair board.
"They have indicated that they aren't interested in continuing a shared use agreement with the city and have demanded that the city contribute 100 percent of the costs for those repairs to the beams in the arena," Assaf said.
He said they are looking for potential negotiants or mediation as the next step after that.
"Ultimately we'd like to appoint a couple council members to work with staff in that negotiation, potential mediation," Assaf said.
Council Member Britney Kawecki asked whether the city owns the arena and Assaf said it's a "complicated question."
He went on to say in 1985 the city constructed the arena on fair board property and following the construction, there were multiple agreements that described the city and fair board as having a shared ownership of the arena.
"Sharing ownership on improvements of real property is somewhat complicated... the question, if there's not going to be a renewed agreement with the fair board, is how to unwind that ownership interest because the city has invested money in those improvements and has improvements that are clearly city-owned in the facility, but it is, according to the agreements, a jointly-owned facility," Assaf said.
"So you're saying we own half the building?" Kawecki asked.
Assaf then repeated that it's a complicated question but that that is how the ownership has been defined in past agreements.
Kawecki said that the council has never said that the city doesn't own it and that she would be concerned if someone said the city didn't own it as about $2 million of local option sales tax (LOST) money is invested into the facility.
"Per state statute for LOST funds, the city can't invest money into something we don't own with LOST funds," Kawecki said.
She asked why the city would pay for a study to be done on potential repairs, as Wold has done in the past, if the city only owns half the building. Assaf acknowledged the 2022 study in which Wold conducted a study of multiple city buildings, but said he was not involved at that time so could not answer.
"It's hard for me when we're dealing with this much uncertainty... the fair board rejected the contract and now they've moved forward with making ice... we don't have a contract," Kawecki said.
After some more concerns and questions were raised, Council Member Wayne Hasek made a motion that if it goes into mediation, he and Council Member James Kotewa should sit in on discussions as they have mediation experience.
However Mayor Lee Baarts asked Assaf whether there was more that had to be discussed first.
In more discussion, Council Member Randy Lubenow--who had made the original motion to amend the contract with the fair board at the Sept. 14 meeting-- again said he wanted an independent inspection to be conducted so that it was known exactly what, if anything, needed to be done regarding the beams and how much it would cost.
"I would expect that the fair board, city and hockey would each take a third of that (cost) and then we're at a position where we can decide if we want out of the hockey business altogether," Lubenow said, acknowledging that then the ice compressors would need to be discussed.
Baarts asked Finance Director, Paul Hoye, whether things have been split in thirds between the parties in the past.
"My recollection on the majority of the items we've had for maintenance items to take care of, it's been split 50-50 between the city and fair board," Hoye said.
Later in the meeting, Hoye found figures and said that a new sprinkler system was split 50-50 between the city and fair board, the city was responsible for 100 percent of roof repairs, the concrete floor was split 50-50 between the city and fair board and that ice cooling equipment was 100 percent the responsibility of the hockey association.
During discussion, Council Member Jay Maynard said it sounded to him like the council was in agreement on some questions it wanted answered.
"What's it going to cost, who's responsible for it and did we agree to pay some amount? Those are the three questions all of us up here have and those are the questions we need answered before we sign off on anything," Maynard said.
He said there needs to be some justification and that the city won't just pay what the fair board says needs to be paid for.
At some point in the meeting Kotewa pointed out that the fair board and hockey association put on events for the citizens, however, Kawecki said that while the hockey association puts on events like rock on ice and open skate, the association also charges citizens for those events and that the city does not get any revenue back for ice use.
"There's a lot of things that need to come into consideration," Kawecki said. "There's so much uncertainty."
At the end of the discussion, Kawecki said Assaf had given them three options, negotiations, mediations or nothing.
She made a motion to get a Request for Proposal (RFP) for engineer's assessment of beams at the Martin County Arena as soon as possible. The motion passed unanimously.
Hasek's earlier motion to have him and Kotewa do possible negations passed 3-2 with Kawecki and Lubenow opposed.
In other news:
-- Police Chief Mike Beletti briefly presented the Body Worn Camera (BWC) audit that was recently conducted over a two year period as required. He said that no violations were reported over the last two years.
-- The council set the date to canvass the municipal election returns on Friday, Nov. 6.