FAIRMONT– During a work session on Monday the Fairmont City Council talked further about what it wants to do with Blue Earth Avenue as the street is scheduled to be reconstructed from Park Street to State Street. At its meeting on Feb. 10 the council discussed some improvement options after hearing a traffic study presentation.

Public Works Director, Matthew York, spoke about the street in two sections on Monday. Section one is from the highway 15 right-of-way to 75 feet east of Prairie and section two is from that stopping point to Downtown Plaza.

First, looking from near Freedom gas station toward State Street, York asked whether they should incorporate medians or a center turn lane. He said that medians would add some beautification, but noted that there are also some crossings in that area.

Council Member Jay Maynard said he’d be opposed to making it difficult to make a left turn on Blue Earth Avenue.

“There’s a lot of businesses through there and if we put a median it will be harder to get to them,” Maynard said.

Council Member Randy Luebnow said he was opposed to any plan that would get rid of parking on the south side of Blue Earth Avenue.

“There might not be a lot during 9 to 5 Monday through Friday but definitely in the mornings, overnight, weekends. You see a lot of people parking on their lawns on the 500 block of Blue Earth Avenue when it’s snowing and different things. I think it’s really important that we keep the parking on that section,” Lubenow said.

Going back to the topic of a median versus center turn lanes, Council Member Britney Kawecki said she didn’t think beautification needed to be done on that portion and said most of the businesses and turns were in that area.

On the parking, Kawecki said, “as the analysis showed by Bolton and Menk, I don’t think it necessarily needs to be as many spots.”

Lubenow asked whether any curbs would be removed as part of the project.

“The plan for this project is a mill and overlay and restriping and then whatever beautification models we want to put in,” York explained. “If we want to move curbs, some curbs will be replaced as part of the project because they’re deteriorating, but as a blanket statement… if we want to do that and extend the boulevard… everything we want to do or suggest doing is just going to increase the price of the project.”

Mayor Lee Baarts said he thought leaving the width as it is with fixing some curbs as needed was best.

York asked if anyone had more to say about the parking and Lubenow said he thought leaving parking on the south side was essential.

“We also talked about bike lanes and I think that’s something that should be out there for the public. Personally I don’t know if I want bikes going up and down Blue Earth Avenue but I know know some people may feel strongly about that,” Lubenow said.

Kawecki said she was against bike lanes on Blue Earth Avenue as there’s fast moving traffic and she believes it would be unsafe.

“Before we start talking about adding bike lanes, we need to start talking about sidewalks,” Kawecki said.

Moving away from parking, York turned to streetlights. He said an easy way to beautify an area is to add streetlights.

“I think the ones we have out there are in need of repair and work anyway,” he said.

On the topic of boulevards, York said staff has talked about reconstructing the curb line to extend some of the green boulevard space on the existing north side. He said a cost analysis has been done for the whole length of the project on the north side and it was about $800,000.

“It’s not cheap but it would bring a different look to the area,” York said.

Questions were asked about how that would be funded and York said it’s an additional cost that the city would be responsible for. Maynard said spending that much money on just half of the project didn’t make sense to him.

Next section two was discussed, which is 75 feet east from Freedom to Downtown Plaza. York asked if a median should be put in instead of the left hand turn lane. He said it would be about 10 to 12 feet wide.

Mayor Lee Baarts said he would like to have it be the same as section one with no divider but Kawecki disagreed.

“The city is trying to do all these things to try to attract new people to live here and new businesses and growth and development. We need to do something that says we want to grow,” she said.

Maynard said while he agrees with that, he said doing it on just those three blocks was pretty “piecemeal.”

“Just medians on those few blocks would definitely look like it was halfway done,” Maynard said.

Kawecki said she thought now was the time to add beautification and said she didn’t think it was up to the council alone but that it needed community input.

York said, “we need to take these concept drawings to the citizen group and let them decide where they lie at in it. Maybe the top two concepts we bring back with a cost analysis.”

The city’s Park and Street Superintendent, Nick Lardy, was invited to talk about how potential additions and changes would affect his department and the work it does.

“The three lanes I think would be the best for snow removal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against beautification in any way at all,” Lardy said.

He said if trees, flowers and grass were added, he didn’t know how it would be maintained with traffic close to the median.

“There’s nowhere anyone can get out of a pickup and safely work in that median,” Lardy said.

He said there would also be nowhere to put snow when doing snow removal.

“It would look cool and all, don’t get me wrong, but maintenance is going to be an issue,” Lardy said.

Interim City Administrator Jeff O’Neill said that cities do successfully beautify their urban areas and that there is some sacrifice to maintenance from time to time. He said the sacrifice goes both ways.

“Your infrastructure and your community and the designs that you create for your citizens. You serve your citizens. There’s tradeoffs. We want a city that we want to live in, not just one that’s so easy to maintain. We want to have a nice balance,” O’Neill said.

He said the council will need to weigh the concerns and what the citizens want.

Next York brought up the stoplight at Prairie and Blue Earth, which he noted is not eligible for state funding, but that the current one is in need of repair.

“At the cost of $350,000 (each), do we even want to discuss stoplights at Prairie and/or Park?” asked York.

Lubenow said if given the choice between roundabouts or lights, he would choose the lights. His choice for the north-south street would be stop signs.

“I think roundabouts are going to cause problems,” he said.

Kawecki said she partially agreed but that a two-way stop sign going north and south would be fine in that area.

In closing the discussion, York said that staff will compile the input and bring back a plan to council at a later date. He said since some state money is being used it will need to go through an approval process there as well.

O’Neill added that it really is a ‘once in a 30 year’ chance to look at the area. He said some more money might need to be spent on additional renderings that show what different options will look like.