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FAIRMONT - The Public Owned Housing Program (POHP) Grant Fairmont Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) is set to receive was re-approved at Monday's brief board meeting, with a welcome addition.
HRA Director Gail Diede laid out the details to begin the meeting.
"They swapped people on us at Minnesota Housing, and the guy had messed up in the figures," she said.
The funding was initially approved at $1.9 million. Somewhere along the line a piece of the project, which is to cover plumbing, sewer lines and patio replacement across all 115 units at Friendship Village, as well as widening of sidewalks, was not completely put in the project.
"There was some failure in what hadn’t been completely put in the project," Diede said. "It was all put in, and then they went back and asked for a bigger grant, and it was approved."
This was done with the help of Susan Bergmann at Minnesota Housing, adding $200,000 to cover the parts of the project initially missed.
"She went back to the committee and said he didn’t have all the figures in," Diede said. "They had awarded us $1.9 million in April. [Bergmann] asked for additional funding, and it went through their board. In September they approved it, and they took us up to $2.1 million to cover the difference. I needed to bring it up with the board that the grant has increased. Need a vote and a motion that it’s all okay."
Given it was an addition of funds, it had no problem passing unanimously for the board.
Further discussion was also had on the Jameson Bush Mill Circle project, as they discussed tiling work on the site. City Council Representative Randy Lubenow said he has not talked to the city yet about asking for funding for some of the project's infrastructure.
"I have talked to Bjorn Olson and he’s excited to add it," he said. "It’s always a little bit of a touchy subject with the city because they have to do work on their end, but then we never get the money. We got to keep applying. This has more both parties could maybe get behind because it is housing for people."
With Lubenow asking about the current idea for the project, Board Chair Clare Mosloski said it will have one street into one big cul-de-sac built with housing around it. The first phase would consist of 14 homes built, and then a second phase would build another 14 for a total of 28 one-story modular family homes, a concept Fairmont HRA picked up from visits to a similar development in Albert Lea.
"We have a council meeting December 14, and I did ask to keep that clear on the schedule just in case. I'll let you know if we’re proceeding with that; somebody might want to come to that December 14 meeting," Lubenow said.
No action was taken on this as it was a discussion item.