Wednesday was an exciting day around the county as two big projects were celebrated. First, there was the Bravo Zulu House Grand Opening in Winnebago, or Northern Martin County. Then later in the day the groundbreaking ceremony for Martin County West’s new school took place in Sherburn.

The energy at both of these events was extremely positive and both were well attended with several hundred at each.

When all was said and done and I was reflecting back on both I thought how amazing it would be to have a project of such magnitude celebrated in Fairmont.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s been plenty to celebrate and a lot of smaller but important projects getting done, such as the bike share program and work on the parking lot and boat ramps at Gomsrud Park.

However, one project could match the excitement of what was celebrated Wednesday in our neighboring communities and that is the Fairmont Area Community Center.

We’ve seen great support for a community center and we’ve also seen strong opposition to it. One thing we haven’t seen lately are really any updates on the project at all.

At the May 12 Fairmont City Council meeting, Councilor Randy Lubenow pointed out that the project is now going on nine years.

“I really think it’s time we make a decision. I know the FACC group is working hard on this but the deadline keeps getting pushed back and back,” Lubenow said.

He shared that he had set his own personal deadline of 60 days and said if by the July 14 meeting there’s no more concrete proof that the project is feasible and ready to move forward, he believes the city should back out of the FACC group commitment.

As Lubenow said, there are a lot of other great ideas and partnerships the city could look into and spend the sales tax money on. Since it went into effect in 2017, nearly $7.5 million has been collected and, per the language that was used in the vote that passed, that money can only be used to fund “recreational amenities, trails and a community center.”

While it can be used in other ways, the city council several years ago committed $14 million of the sales tax money that’s to be collected to a community center with the Fairmont Area Community Center Foundation responsible for the rest.

Now, many, many changes have taken place over the past few years and some of the delays are understandable, including impacts from Covid and a lawsuit that prevented the project from moving forward. However, the last time a public update was given from the Foundation was in September 2024.

When I look at the Bravo Zulu House project and the new Martin County West school building, I see similarities. They’re different projects of course– one is a sober living home for veterans that was privately funded and one is an educational facility funded by a referendum– but what they have in common is that they both had supporters from different organizations come together to make it happen.

The disconnect with the community center is that not everyone that needs to be on board with the project is on board. Certainly a large amount of people were against the MCW project as it passed with 966 yes votes and 901 no votes, but in the end people from the district and community came together to get it done. Similarly with the Bravo Zulu House, there were people from multiple organizations working together to get it done.

So what’s missing with the project in Fairmont? There are complicated details to work out, sure, but there’s also millions of dollars raised, land donated and people who want it. So why can’t it get done?

I’m not sure anyone has the answer but I do think one thing is becoming more clear and that’s that something needs to get figured out soon before all faith in the project is lost and there’s no longer a chance of the community coming together for a groundbreaking, let alone to celebrate a grand opening.