The Faribault County Board of Commissioners heard from three speakers and entertained questions from two Blue Earth Area sixth-grade classes at its meeting Tuesday.

In between brief exchanges with curious students, Commissioner Tom Warmka headed discussions on both ongoing and proposed county projects.

Accompanied by Public Works Department intern Dillion Krosch, county engineer Mark Daly updated the board on bids for several pavement projects, including forthcoming Main Street construction in Blue Earth.

Bids for North Main Street work, from Leland Parkway to Fairgrounds Road, will be open Monday at 10 a.m., Daly said, and the plan is for sidewalks to remain in place “as long as possible.”

“I’m hoping for a special board meeting [to update progress] prior to June,”?he added.

Detailing a crack-sealing program that works primarily for “three- to four-year-old pavement,”?Daly said Fahrner Asphalt Sealers out of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, will handle another road project after a bid by All Things Asphalt did not meet bond requirements.

“I?reviewed about 20 miles,”?Daly said of the project’s target roads,?”and about half were eligible for crack sealing.”

The board passed a motion to approve Daly’s crack-sealing proposal estimated at $50,539.32, according to a Public Works bid summary and did the same for his request to start advertising for County Road 18 plans.

Planning and Zoning’s Michelle Stindtman, who has discussed solar energy ordinances with the board in recent years, also spoke at Tuesday’s meeting, distributing copies of a new renewable energy ordinance.

Aiming to repeal and replace 2010’s Faribault County Wind Energy Conversion Systems Ordinance, the updated document detailed Stindtman’s goal of incorporating solar energy guidelines into county jurisdiction.

“There are small systems and large systems,”?Stindtman said of the ordinance’s solar project classifications.

Commissioner Tom Loveall said that as technology improves, it will be important for the county to oversee the permitted scales of size and kilowatt power of solar projects.

War mka, meanwhile, said he would prefer not to implement excessive restrictions for both people who already own solar panels and those who may seek projects in the future.

“This is America,”?he said, “and people should be able to improvise when they can.”

Commissioner John Roper made it clear that landowners should shoulder responsibility for large solar energy projects if they receive money to support them.

“I?want to protect the county,”?he said. “I?don’t want the county to go take down mills and towers if landowners go bankrupt 20 years from now.”

Loveall countered by questioning whether or not abandoned windmills or solar panels would even be damaging to the community if they were, in fact, left behind by owners.

Commissioner Greg Young chimed in, too.

“Nobody’s going to come build if you stifle them,”?he said.

Ultimately, the board agreed some sort of development agreement might be a helpful addition to Stindtman’s proposed ordinance, especially one pertaining to large-scale projects.

Young and Warmka motioned to meet and further discuss the potential agreement, while Stindtman proposed a June 14 public hearing for display of the new ordinance, as well as plans to publish an intent to enact the ordinance, pending approval of the board.

Joe Stangel, from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, was the last of three speakers at the meeting and was granted a request to transition possession of forfeited property to his department.

The 31.5-acre property, located near Walnut Lake on the north side of Interstate 90, was deemed a forfeited tax parcel in 1994.

Stangel said the land “would fit into the wildlife management”?of DNR and would likely be “open to public hunting and non-motorized public use.”

Warmka, whose district contains the property, moved to pass Stangel’s proposed transition and appointed auditor John Thompson to draft a resolution for the transaction.