Viesselman honored as coach

Congratulations to Fairmont High School’s robotics coach, Sam Viesselman, who was recently named Robotics Coach of the Year for Section 2 and Assistant Robotics Coach of the Year statewide by the Minnesota Coaches Association. Viesselman got his start as a student in FHS’s robotics program and is now serving as a coach. He has proven to be an outstanding coach and has led this year’s team to win first at the state tournament and it even qualified for and attended the world competition. We’re lucky to have Viesselman as not only a mentor at the school, but also as a member of our community.

FEDA talks property purchase

This week the Fairmont Economic Development Authority put plans to purchase the Meschke property, which it had plans to turn into an industrial park, on hold after the purchase price came back more than two times higher than expected. It was a good choice made by FEDA to table the purchase until hopefully something changes and then FEDA can move forward as was intended.

Interim city admin search starts over

With Cathy Reynold’s end date quickly approaching, the city greatly needs to find an interim city administrator. Unfortunately, we learned this week that some residents of the city and members of the council have turned away an eligible candidate who would have served the purpose well after they made un-needed calls and posts on social media. These actions were un-called for and those responsible need to realize the damage that they’re doing and put an end to it or the city won’t be able to find anyone suitable in a timely manner and maybe not even at all.

Work session details financing

Some important moves were made this week during a joint work session dealing with the proposed community center. Things are finally moving in the right direction as it looks like the Foundation will be taking over control. However, conversations are still taking place about adding on child care space in the community center. Brandon Edmundson said it best, we should be focused on supporting Lakeview in finishing up their child care space for Building Blocks first and if there’s still a need for more child care down the road, conversations about adding on to the community center can happen then.