The Fairmont City Council Monday discussed the future of the new Public Works Facility. However, the discussion did not end in a motion to proceed or not proceed in the direction of the project. John Pristas. Senior Project Manager at Kraus-Anderson, made a presentation that included three different projects two being of an estimated cost of $5 million for a stand-alone project of the Margaret Street building and $5 million addition to the Line Department. The council didn’t move further with these options.
The council took no action on consideration of a Letter of Intent from Community Asset Development Group to purchase land on the west side of Fairmont and develop market rate, multifamily housing. Some councilors expressed what they had heard from constituents that they were opposed to the proposed 45 unit housing development was just too large for the proposed neighborhood. Councilor Bruce Peters didn’t want the Development Group to spend a lot of money when in the end the project would most likely be defeated after community input. Councilors were all for housing development in the city but not at that particular location.
The council did approve establishing policies and procedures for the administration of loans for the City of Fairmont Comprehensive rehabilitation loan program. Fairmont Chief of Police Michael Hunter made a presentation on the police body camera program biennial audit. A copy of the audit has been submitted to the State Of minnesota Legislative Commission on Data Practices and Personal Data Privacy. The audit was completed at a cost of $1,000.