Council debates road plans and beekeeping | News, Sport, Jobs

FAIRMONT – Monday’s Fairmont City Council meeting saw a series of runoffs as the council discussed old and new agenda items. One of the first items discussed was the five-year plan for road reconstruction and the related municipal bond sale.

Jessica Green of Northland Securities, the city’s financial adviser, said a public hearing will be held in connection with the five-year reconstruction plan due to the bond sale.

“The city typically issues bonds for road improvement, as opposed to bonds for road construction,” Green explained. “The big difference… is the assessments.”

She said the bonds would be issued this year to cover project costs the city has already incurred in 2023 and 2024, and also to borrow for road construction projects in 2025 and 2026.

Finally, Green said staff has been working to identify potential projects to borrow for over the next four years. There is about $20 million available in total, but the city only plans to spend $9 million this year, one-third of which will be covered by bonds for road improvements. The other two-thirds will be covered by bonds for road construction.

Following the conclusion of the public hearing, Council Member Britney Kawecki made a motion to add several amendments to the street reconstruction plan.

“I think our road repair plan needs to be discussed. This is a five-year plan and we have $20 million. And Mr. (Matt) York (director of public works) had stated at a meeting that it would take $36 million to repair all of our major roads and now we are discussing $20 million. That’s a big chunk.” said Kawecki.

She said she felt the project needed an owner representative to ensure it was neither over- nor under-designed and that everything was done in a cost-effective manner.

“Roads seem to be the most important thing for all Fairmont residents,” said Kawecki.

Their three amendments included appointing an owner representative, issuing a request for proposal (RFP) for an engineer to complete the design, and allowing the owner representative or engineer to amend the street plan at any time.

Council member Jay Maynard said he thought it was premature to talk about technology and RFPs since the council only needs to adopt a master plan.

“If we believe that these roads need to be built, then we need to vote yes and move on.” said Maynard.

When asked by Council Member Wayne Hasek, York said that in his experience, he had never heard of an owner representative being used on a road construction project.

York added that some road designs have in-house staff working on them, but some larger roads are put out to bid. He also said many municipalities only do one or two road projects a year, not as many as Fairmont does in some years, so it also depends on staff time.

“There are many ways to do it. Is any of them right or wrong? It’s just the way it is. If you have four projects, sometimes four engineering firms will work with you and give each one a project. There are different ways to do it, but the owner’s representative and the construction manager usually do it in-house.” said York.

He added that there are RFPs for the design of the project and all bids from Fairmont have been put out to tender.

“I think sometimes we confuse the idea that planning is an RFP or RFQ (Request For Quote) and that road projects will always be a tender process,” said York.

The motion did not receive a second vote and was defeated. Maynard made a motion to approve the road reconstruction plan as presented and it passed 3-1, with Kawecki dissenting. A municipal consulting services agreement with Northland Securities and a resolution to sell municipal bonds were approved in a unanimous vote.

The council has moved on to other matters and considered amending Chapter 4 (Animals) of the Fairmont City Code. The item has already been discussed by the council twice in recent months after a resident asked why there was no ordinance specifically addressing beekeeping.

At the beginning of the meeting, Kawecki had asked for the item to be removed from the agenda entirely because, in her opinion, the Council had not called for any further steps during the last discussion.

However, City Attorney Cara Brown of Flaherty and Hood said Monday that it is her duty to alert staff when there are risks associated with regulations. While extensive changes are not necessary, there are risks in allowing beekeeping in the city without any regulations.

“…without any quantity restrictions or restrictions on proximity to a daycare center or other type of residence. Therefore, we wanted to propose minimum rules for this purpose and ensure that beekeeping is actually allowed. The current wording … is ambiguous,” said Brown.

Council member Randy Lubenow asked why these concerns had not been raised in previous discussions. City Manager Matt Skaret said at the time of the discussion, there was talk of imposing some requirements, and although the council decided to move forward without them, further research was subsequently conducted.

“We are working on our ordinances and subdivisions and that would have been done at this point, so I think this is basically against the council’s actions,” said Kawecki.

She said if the lawyer thought the case should be reviewed, it should have been brought before the council again first.

Maynard said: “I have no problem at all with the city staff that we hire as experts in these kinds of things taking the initiative to figure out what the best course of action is and bringing it to the council when they realize that maybe the council needs to do something different. That’s what we pay them to do.”

Council Member Randy Lubenow expressed concern that staff may not have enough time to deal with this new ordinance and ensure that people are complying with it.

Maynard made a motion to approve the first consideration of an amendment to the ordinance. It received two votes for and two against. Mayor Lee Baarts cast the deciding vote, voting yes, and the motion passed. It will be brought back for second reading at a later date.

Miscellaneous:

– Council approved a grant modification to the Department of Transportation (MnDOT) grant agreement relating to the Taxi Lanes and Taxiways for Hangars project.

– The Council has approved a new policy for the installation of new street lights.

– After discussion, the Council approved a revision of the human resources policy on employee development: Tuition reimbursement was increased from $1,500 to $2,500 per year.