FAIRMONT– At the conclusion of the Martin County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Commissioners Steve Flohrs and Elliot Belgard announced that they would be retiring and not running for re-election later this year.

Flohrs, who represents the fifth district of the county, said that he has enjoyed being a commissioner and working with the people in the county but that he felt it was time to move on. He stressed that he was in good health but wanted to move on and spend time with family.

“I’ve been doing this for 12 years and was the soil and water supervisor for 10 years before that. I just think it’s time,” he said.

Belgard said he would also not be running for re-election this year. He has also served as a commissioner for 12 years and was also Mayor of Truman for 14 years.

“I think I’ll take a break now,” Belgard said.

He said that by getting the word out now, he hoped that some good candidates would come forward to run for the position this year.

In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, the board was tasked with considering a purchase agreement between Martin County and Robert J. Siems Sr. Investments LLP for Lot 1, 2 an 3, Block 1, George Loewenberg addition in the city of Fairmont. The land will be used for the proposed Public Safety and Justice Center.

County Attorney Taylor McGowan said that the purchase agreement was under the terms the board had previously discussed and that he did not believe it needed to go into closed session to discuss further.

In sharing more details, McGowan said that the full purchase price of the property would be $566,000 and that the purchase option price would be $10,000 and would last through the end of the year.

“Given the recent developments that we’ve discussed with Fairmont city officials, it’s for the three currently plotted parcels in the George Loewenberg addition that are owned by Mr. (Steve) Frick and the Siems family,” McGowan said.

Belgard made a motion to approve the option to the purchase agreement for the three specific parcels. The motion passed.

Moving to other matters, the board heard from Chuck Mixson, a heavily involved volunteer with the Martin County Veterans Memorial, who asked for the board’s blessing to proceed with planning for a dedication ceremony to be held on May 25. The group has already secured an event permit from the city of Fairmont for the ceremony.

Mixson said that the ceremony is slated to go from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and that music will be provided by the Fairmont High School band and that there will be food provided by Martin County Pork Producers.

“We’re going to recognize sponsors and all of the people who came together to make this project go. We’re sending out invitations to all those people,” Mixson.

He said that some final touches are being done to complete the memorial and that in order to prepare for the ceremony, some landscaping needs to be done. He asked whether Sentence to Serve could do some planting behind the wall. The board approved the request.

Mixson noted that the memorial project started back in 2016 and expressed gratitude that it was nearly complete. He said that after the ceremony he would retire from his involvement in it. The board thanked him for his work on the project.

In other business the board:

— Proclaimed April National County Government Month.

— Approved the purchase of a 2024 budgeted shop truck body, add-ons and installation in the amount of $60,986 from Crysteel Truck Equipment.

— Approved the resignation of a part-time library page and authorized recruitment to fill the vacancy.

— Approved the hire of Patti Matthews as full-time administrative assistant for the U of M Extension/4-H Program Office.

— Set a public hearing time and date of 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 7 for a public hearing on a single family home tax abatement request from Steven Landsteiner.

— Approved a letter of support to the Office of Broadband Development for Federated Rural Electric Association’s MN Border to Border grant.