FAIRMONT– The Martin County Board of Commissioners heard a brief update on the Justice Center project and also discussed purchasing land for the site on Tuesday.

The update came from Jonathan Loose with Wold Architects and Engineers. He said that he has met with state code officials to review the building and that he’s had several meetings about technology systems.

Loose said he has also had a few meetings with the city of Fairmont about vacating the right of way on the site.

“I think we’re at the point of agreeing what that looks like in terms of dimensions and where the lines will be drawn,” Loose said.

In addition to all of that, Loose said he’s held weekly internal meetings with constructional engineers.

He said at the Dec. 17 meeting the plan and estimate will be presented to the board and at that time Loose said that construction documents will be nearly complete and they’ll be ready to go out for bids in early 2025.

After Loose’s presentation, the county considered exercising the option to purchase the land for the Justice Center. The property is known as the “Siems Site” and covers Lots 1, 2 and 3, Block 1, known as George Loewenberg Addition in the city of Fairmont. The cost of the land is $556,000.

County Attorney Taylor McGowan said, “the option (to purchase) expires noon on December 31.”

Commissioner Jaime Bleess made a motion to purchase the land as listed in the control sheet. The motion received a second from Commissioner Kathy Smith.

Commissioner Elliot Belgard asked whether the board could wait a month considering it hasn’t received a signed agreement yet from the city of Fairmont that it wants to be involved in the project.

Smith said that the size of the project wouldn’t affect the site of the facility.

“I’m a little hesitant to spend $556,000 and have something happen at a Fairmont city Council meeting that can still happen and the project gets postponed. We can wait a month,” he said.

Commissioner Richard Koons agreed with Belgard and said, “we don’t have an agreement with the city and I’m a little hesitant to put the cart ahead of the horse. I know we need to have land to build on at some point but I don’t know if 30 days will alter it.”

Belgard again pleaded to wait another 30 days before passing the motion.

“The city of Fairmont is either going to be part of the project or they’re not going to be part of the project,”said Smith. “The way we’ve looked at this for eight years is it doesn’t matter if they’re in or not. We’re still going to build the project.”

She warned the rest of the board to take care not to lose the best site that the county has had to build the facility on.

The motion failed 4-1. The board will discuss it again at the Dec. 17 meeting.

In other news, the board again reviewed the 2025 budget and levy and Auditor/Treasurer Michael Forstner shared that with some more cuts, the levy has dropped from a 15.66 percent increase as set as the preliminary levy, to 12.48 percent increase.

Forstner said that the changes include the fact that the levy request from Human Services was $25,000 less than anticipated and that there were some adjustments made to work comp and that more revenue than expected will come to the Sheriff’s Office with the addition of policing services for the city of Truman, along with some other changes.

The truth in taxation meeting, at which time the board will officially adopt the budget and levy, is on Dec. 3

County Engineer Kevin Peyman presented a work order under a MnDOT master partnership for engineering services for sidewalk improvements along Highway 15 in Truman. The Truman City Council has been working with both MnDOT and engineering firm Bolton and Menk on the project for well over a year.

Peyman told the board that Truman has received a Local Partnership Program (LPP) grant from MnDOT for 2025 and that about $40,000 of funding will go toward the project and that MnDOT will also pay for the engineering costs but that the work order will go through the county.

Troy Nemmers with Bolton and Menk provided some other information and said that the city is looking to add 1,700 feet of sidewalk from an existing cross walk on the south end of town that accesses the school sidewalk going west and going along highway 15 along Dollar General and connecting to Truman Senior Living.

“It will connect the school with some of the business area on the north end and with the senior living facility,” Nemmers said. “It will improve pedestrian traffic along highway 15 and get people off of the highway.”

Smith asked if there will be any flashing lights installed at the crosswalk because she noted that traffic tends to go faster than it should in that area. Nemmers said he assumed MnDOT would required something like that.

“We’ll have that conversation,” Nemmers said.

The board approved the work order for the partnership with MnDOT.

Martin Soil and Water Conservation District Technician, Dustin Benes, was also present to quickly go over the county Aquatic Invasive Species prevention plan in order to get funding from the state. Benes said every year the state requires local agencies to submit a plan in order to receive funding.

“The funding is based on how many boat launches we have versus parking spaces we have so that’s how they divide it up in each county,” Benes explained.

He said this year Martin County is scheduled to receive $92,978 and it plans to put a large amount of the money toward combatting Curly Leaf Pondweed in the Fairmont Chain of Lakes.

Benes said he has been talking with both the city of Fairmont and Fairmont Lakes Foundation Inc. about the funding and planning.

In other action, the board:

— Approved an amendment to the food service partnership agreement with Summit Food Service LLC for the Martin County Jail.

— Approved the promotion of a temporary full time correctional officer to full time employment.

— Approved the hire of a temporary full time correctional officer.

— Approved a professional services contract between Martin County and Community and Economic Development Associates (CEDA) for 2025.

— Held a board information session with newly elected commissioners, Billeye Rabbe, Joe Loughmiller and Kevin Kristenson, who will be joining Commissioners Richard Koons and Jaime Bleess in 2025.

*Editor’s note: This story has been edited since its original publication date.