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Park board tackles slate of ideas, concerns

FAIRMONT – With a blank slate, several topics came to the forefront of the discussion during the Fairmont Park Board meeting on Tuesday. To start off, Board Chair Jodie Whitmore said she was thrilled with the coupons the city provides people for using the dump sites. In tandem, she spoke on the leaf collection and potential future changes to this program. “Is it or would it be feasible for Fairmont to start having yard waste tubs?” Whitmore asked. “So many cities have yard waste tubs at everybody's house, and a truck comes and gets them.” Public Works Superintendent Nick ...

Faribault Co. talks right of way

BLUE EARTH— Safety in the right of way of county roads was one of the topics of discussion at the Faribault County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday. A policy on hay bales in the county road right of way (ROW) was also presented to the board for adoption by Public Works/county engineer April Wellman. “Hay bales in county road ROW can result in snow drifting across the road through the entirety of the winter,” Wellman explained. “This creates a hazard for the traveling public and additional work for the Public Works staff to track and plow these locations repeatedly for ...

Truman city-wide cleanup on Saturday

TRUMAN — Granada-Huntley-East Chain School has been celebrating homecoming. Tomorrow is Spirit Dress Up Day. Show your Jaguar Pride. GHEC School has decided to move all Homecoming activities to Thursday, Sept. 17. This includes the Homecoming Parade, Pep Fest and football game. Diamond ...

Border to Border project edging closer to finish line

MARTIN COUNTY – Federated Broadband's Border-to-Border project, which has worked in select areas stretching through rural north and south Martin County, is nearing completion after a year of work. The broadband project has taken $10 million to complete, with $8 million coming from a state ...

In contentious vote, council OKs preliminary 2027 budget and levy

FAIRMONT— The Fairmont City Council again discussed the 2027 preliminary budget and levy at its meeting on Monday, which it approved in a 3-2 vote at a 10.8 percent levy increase. This came following three budget workshops in recent weeks. The council was looking at 10.8 percent increase with the tax rate impact at a 10.9 percent increase. Finance Director Paul Hoye said, “Prior years we’ve had enough growth in our tax capacity that it actually offsets some of our levy increase, this year we actually had a slight decrease in our net tax capacity, very small, less than ...

County OKs preliminary levy at 6.57 hike

FAIRMONT— Following a budget workshop last week, the Martin County Board of Commissioners in their regular meeting on Tuesday learned that the possible 2027 levy increase of 6.59 percent had dropped to a 6.57 percent increase with the levy dollar amount at $25.3 million. Commissioner Joe Loughmiller made a motion to approve the preliminary levy at a 6.57 percent increase. Commissioner Richard Koons seconded it to move forward with discussion. “I still think it’s too high,” Koons said. “It is a good starting point and we can work down from there in the next two ...