FAIRMONT - A union that represents Martin County employees has been denied a temporary injunction after claiming unfair labor practices by the county.

The union - American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 65 - filed suit against the county board and Martin County Engineer Kevin Peyman after Peyman attended two union meetings with employees of the Martin County Highway Department in September.

At the meetings, Peyman offered information regarding benefits for union and non-union employees. Peyman says he stressed on both occasions that no discussion regarding decertification occur while he was present, and he says he offered no opinions about employees who did or did not want to decertify.

The temporary injunction sought by the union was an attempt to stop a decertification election by employees and impound any ballots.

Judge Linda Titus denied the union's requests this week.

"It is possible they could still challenge this," County Attorney Terry Viesselman told county commissioners Tuesday. "But the judge's wording indicated that the (union) council was unlikely to prevail if they did."

A decertification vote took place Tuesday, with highway department employees voting 12-5 to no longer be represented by the union.

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In other business, commissioners received an update on a proposed project by Midwest Biogas of Gaylord to be developed east of Welcome.

President Nick Nelson requested a letter of support to apply for a $1 million grant.

The company gave a presentation to commissioners and other county officials in September, encountering a lot of skepticism. From one commissioner, that skepticism has not faded away.

"I am very leery of this, because this could be jeopardizing our good name," said Steve Pierce. "We haven't seen a written plan, things are not in place ... I won't vote for this."

But the other commissioners were willing to move forward.

"We can write our own letter," said Commissioner Steve Donnelly. "We can make a more general letter that we feel more comfortable with."

"It is exciting, even if we still have some doubts," said Commissioner Dan Schmidtke.

The vote for a letter of support was 4-1, with Pierce dissenting.

The letter will be reviewed at the commission meeting Dec. 15.