FAIRMONT–The inaugural meeting of the Fairmont Environment and Resilience planning committee took place Thursday evening at the Southern Minnesota Educational Campus (SMEC) building. The meeting was facilitated by representatives of Region Nine, which has awarded the city a $12,250 grant to fund the planning process.

Members of the planning committee present included Andrew Aspelund, Ted Schaefer and Angie Grafstrom and Fairmont City Councilors Wayne Hasek and James Kotewa, along with city staff members Pat Oman, the Community Development Director, Ned Koppen, Economic Development Coordinator and Hannah Neusch, Water Resource Technician.

Based in Mankato, Region Nine is Fairmont’s federal economic development district. The organization brings in funding, does planning and has partnerships with state and federal agencies as well as private organizations.

Samuel Sharp, an energy and sustainability planner with Region Nine, said that the goal for the committee was to identify a project and how to approach it and then go after some grants to help implement the plan.

He went over the tentative timeline, which included putting out a community survey over the summer, analyzing the results and then in the fall, honing in on some projects to present to the city council.

Sabri Fair, an environment and sustainability planner with Region Nine, also went over various data pertaining to the city of Fairmont. First, he talked about severe weather and said that over the past 70 years there has been an increase in precipitation in Minnesota.

“There’s been a 25 percent increase in spring precipitation since the 1950s and this is a trend that we expect to continue seeing. We also see that 10 of the warmest and wettest years on record have all occurred since 1998,” Fair said.

On the flip side, he said that there’s also been an increased likelihood of drought, which can impact the economy in terms of agriculture, as well as water resources.

“We’re going to be seeing this big shift of these extremes of either extremely wet or extremely dry,” he explained.

He added that changes in weather can impact health. For example, he said the evenings are not as cool as they used to be which can lead to people not sleeping as well. He said some diseases, such as Lyme disease, can also be transmitted easier in warmer weather.

Fair also touched on water quality, which seemed to be something that most of the group took the largest interest in.

Looking at Budd Lake specifically, he shared some data from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) which showed high levels of chlorophyl, or algae, which he noted changes throughout the season.

“That can impact that quality of life when it comes to people wanting to boat or fish on the lake in terms of algae blooms,” Fair said.

He said that phosphorous levels were also high but acknowledged that both the city and county have been addressing that.

Finally, Fair spoke about the 2040 electricity goal, which is a statewide goal that all electricity in Minnesota by 2040 will be 100 percent renewable or carbon neutral.

During the meeting the committee members were asked to write down some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the community.

Some strengths identified included ag economy, recreation and public places and green spaces. Weaknesses included water quality issues, population shrinkage and deteriorating buildings and infrastructure.

When it came to discussing opportunities, some options that were thrown out included expanding water treatment testing, having an in-depth emergency response plan and updating building code for stronger wind and fire resistance.

Threats listed included PFAS, or the forever chemical, which was recently identified in walleye in George Lake, invasive species like zebra mussels and climate change.

At one point those present broke into smaller groups to further discuss some concerns and possibilities and conversation often returned to the topic of the lakes.

Lisa Callahan, community readiness and outreach for Region Nine, asked a group if it likes tourists coming to use the lakes.

“I think that it could be more and I don’t think that it’s been marketed well in the past,” said Neusch.

Callahan agreed and said she thought the lakes could be marketed more. Neusch said that coming off I90 and entering Fairmont you don’t see the lakes so some may be unaware of them.

“There’s no sign that says, ‘here’s the lakes,'” added Schaefer.

“It is a unique city with these type of lakes. They kind of go up the spine of the city. It’s really unique,” Oman said.

“We’re not doing them justice,” Neusch said.

Callahan said she understood wanting to keep them precious.

The tentative plan is for the group to meet next at 5 p.m. on May 22.