ABOVE: Mayo Clinic announced a big change to the Fairmont location in 2024.

FAIRMONT– In 2024, the community saw a fair amount of changes and the biggest seemed to be in terms of building projects, closures and personnel. What follows are the Sentinel’s top 10 news stories of 2024.

No. 10

The conversation of a new year-round ice facility has emerged as a hot topic in recent years as the current Martin County Arena has some inadequacies, namely the refrigeration system. Back in February of 2023, the council voted to take about $2 million earmarked for construction of a new community center and use it to purchase ice compressors for the arena.

There was a special Fairmont City Council meeting on Aug. 26, 2024 where the council talked about the compressor installation and ownership concerns. At another special meeting on Aug. 30, the council approved an updated agreement between the city and Martin County Fair Board concerning the compressors the city purchased for use in the arena.

A main point of the agreement is that the city retains the right to remove the refrigeration equipment from the facility at any time determined by the city. This is important language as the plan is for the city to place the compressors into a new ice facility if/when it is built.

Speaking of which, in Jan. 2023 the council decided to pursue a second Local Option Tales Tax (LOST) to fund construction of a new ice facility, which would be attached to the proposed community center. However, in the Nov. 5, 2024 general election, the second LOST failed with 68 percent of the Fairmont community voting against it.

No. 9

Twelve people, including four incumbents, ran for seats on the Fairmont City Council during the Nov. 5 general election. One of the biggest races was for the at-large seat, which was between incumbent Michele Miller, current Ward 2 representative, Britney Kawecki and Joe Kallemeyn. On election night, Kawecki came away with 43.68 percent of the votes and will take over as at-large officially at the Jan. 13, 2025 Fairmont City Council meeting.

No. 8

An Oct. 18, 2024 article in the Sentinel explains the reasoning behind closing Sterling Drug’s gift store portion of the store. The store, located inside Five Lakes Centre in Fairmont, has been there since 1970.

Sam Ewing, President of Sterling Pharmacy, said the chain was closing all of its gift stores, including one in Austin, in order to focus more on the pharmacy side of the business. In fact, Fairmont’s location will serve as a distribution center for other pharmacies. Construction on that will likely take about six months and is expected to start sometime in early 2025.

No. 7

The city of Fairmont started out 2024 with an interim city administrator, Jeff O’Neill, but during an April 8 meeting, approved the employment of Matt Skaret as new city administrator. A May 4 article in the Sentinel introduces Skaret, who had most recently been city administrator of the nearby community of Jackson.

On Nov. 7, the Fairmont City Council held a special meeting to go over the six month performance evaluation of Skaret, which continued over to a Nov. 14 meeting. Both meetings were held in closed session. At the Nov. 18 Fairmont City Council meeting, Skaret was absent and while it was not talked about, following the meeting Mayor Lee Baarts told the Sentinel that Skaret had been placed on administrative leave.

Then, at the Nov. 25 meeting, the council again approved an agreement with Jeff O’Neill for interim administrative services and will close out the year with O’Neill at the helm.

No. 6

The Fairmont Opera House spent all of 2024 closed to the public and raising funds for repairs needed to keep the facility operational.

In December 2023, Executive Director Blake Potthoff said the repairs were more invasive than originally anticipated and that the facility would remain closed the following year. In July 2024, the Opera House launched its capital campaign and announced that $4 million was needed by the end of 2025 in order to make repairs essential to operations.

In a Nov. 16 article in the Sentinel, Potthoff shared that roughly $529,000 had been raised. However, following a successful Give to the Max Day and generous matching gift, the Fairmont Opera House has currently raised about $565,000 in donations and pledges.

No. 5

A new Public Safety and Justice Center has also been a hot topic in recent years though the project has been talked about on and off for the last 20 years.

The topic made the Sentinel’s top 10 story list in 2023 as during that year the Fairmont City Council denied the county’s request to rezone land, leaving the county without a site.

On June 4, 2024 the Martin County Commissioners held a special meeting to talk about the jail project as it learned that the county was not granted $19.2 million in state bonding for the project. Then at the June 18 meeting, the board authorized Wold Architects and Engineers to redesign the facility within a total projected budget of $50 million to include Martin County Sheriff’s Office, Fairmont Police Department, courts, court administration, county attorney and probation.

Recently, two big things have happened to officially move the project forward. A Dec. 18 Sentinel article titled “County OKs land purchase for jail; adopts levy at 12.49 % increase’ details how at the Dec. 17 meeting the board approved the option to purchase land in Fairmont to construct a new jail and justice center on. At that meeting the board also learned the facility would likely come in closer to $54 million and the board adopted a levy increase that will have a portion of tax payer dollars going toward the county’s contribution to reduce the principle amount of any bond payments.

No. 4

Another long-time project came closer to fruition in 2024 as an Oct. 5 article in the Sentinel shared that the Board of Directors at Lakeview Methodist Health Care Center decided that the non-profit will secure the remainder of the funds, about $500,000, needed to finish its childcare center up front.

Building Blocks Learning Center and Childcare has been housed within Lakeview since 2017 and when Lakeview decided to remodel, it included space for childcare but with rising costs in recent years, the space has sat unfinished since 2022.

Lakeview Administrator Deb Barnes said she believed the project would begin in early 2025. With the new childcare space, there will be capacity for 99 children.

No. 3

In a special election on May 14, the majority of voters in the Martin County West School District supported a $64.7 million bond referendum to allow for the construction of a new school building in Sherburn that will house all students grade K-12.

Previously, in a vote on Nov. 7, 2023 the referendum failed and after fine-tuning the plan, the question went back to the voters in 2024. Leading up to the May 14 vote, there were passionate people campaigning on both sides of the vote but ultimately it passed by 65 votes.

In a Nov. 2 Sentinel article, Superintendent Cori Reynolds spoke about the behind-the-scenes work that has been done since the vote passed and that a groundbreaking ceremony is expected to take place at the end of the current school year, around June 2025.

No. 2

On July 17 United Hospital District (UHD) celebrated the grand opening of its Fairmont Clinic at 1950 Center Creek Drive. Groundbreaking of the $4 million facility had taken place in September 2023.

The addition includes 12 new exam rooms, two new procedure rooms, offices and nursing stations. Along with adding space, in a July 18 Sentinel article, Dr. Bob Karp said that patients had long been asking for more services and CEO Rick Ash said that that expansion in Fairmont came with a desire to keep care close to home.

Another focus of UHD’s in 2024 has been expanding its obstetric (OB) services. On Nov. 20, UHD hosted a lunch and learn in Fairmont where four of its five OB providers introduced themselves to the community.

In a Nov. 21 Sentinel article, Dr. Carina Crookston was quoted as saying: “OB is a hot topic in Fairmont right now and I think one of our goals is, if we reach one extra person who didn’t know we had OB, and we spread the word, then we have succeeded. We want you to know that Fairmont is still a viable community to come to and grow a family.”

No. 1

On Sept. 30, Mayo Clinic announced that labor and delivery and surgical services at the Fairmont location would permanently end in March of 2025. This came as a shock to some, but not all, as deliveries in Fairmont had been on an extended diversion since August 2024. It did come as a disappointment to many including Mayo administrators as Dr. James Hebl, regional vice president for Mayo Clinic Health System Southwest Minnesota said in a Sept. 30 Sentinel article, “it’s difficult for our staff and for our patients and for the community.”

He cited a main reason for the closure as being a significant shortage of physicians in the area, specifically obstetricians and surgeons.

At the time of the announcement administrators could not say how many staff would be directly affected but Mayo has long been one of the top employers for the Fairmont area.

An Oct. 29 Sentinel article summarizes a public hearing that the Minnesota Department of Health hosted at Mayo in Fairmont. Per state law, a hearing is required when any provider makes large changes to services.

Over 150 people attended the hearing online and only 40 people were allowed to physically attend the hearing as per occupancy restrictions, but there were a good deal more in the waiting room.