The Faribault County Board of Commissioners plans on purchasing the former Blue Earth City Hall soon. The county plans on using the former fire hall bay areas, shown above, for the Prairie Transit buses. The former city offices may also be used for extra county office space in the future.

The Faribault County Commissioners, at their meeting on Feb. 4, approved the purchase of the former Blue Earth City Hall – with a caveat.

A discrepancy in the legal description of the City Hall property as presented in the purchase agreement the city had already signed was the reason the members of the County Board requested a change.

County Assessor Brady Rauenhorst explained that the legal description in the purchase agreement did not match the legal description in the recorder’s office.

“The legal description on file for that parcel includes the 12.32 feet in Lot No. 3 on the east side of the building along with Lot Nos. 4 and 5,” Rauenhorst explained to the board. “The purchase agreement did not include Lot No. 3.”

Board chairman Greg Young and commissioner Bill Groskreutz, who had conducted the negotiations with the city of Blue Earth, both felt that after their final talks with the city that Lot No. 3 was meant to be included.

County attorney Cameron Davis advised the board they could pass a resolution to accept the purchase agreement with the amendment to make their desired changes.

“Then it would be up to the city to agree to and pass the amended purchase agreement,” Davis offered.

So the board voted to send the amended purchase agreement back to the city.

“This puts the ball in the city’s court,” commissioner Tom Loveall said.

Loveall then asked for an explanation of what the county intends to do with the property.

“I have been asked by some of my constituents about the property and I haven’t wanted to say too much until I received an update,” Loveall commented.

Young said the intention had been to buy the property and make the process with the city as simple as possible.

“When it first became available, we were interested in it as a place to park and store the transit buses,” Groskreutz added. “The buses are currently being stored at the Highway Department in a cold storage shed and the county would like to get that storage area back.”

Groskreutz pointed out that the garage area which used to be used by the Blue Earth Fire Department was heated and also has a wash bay.

“Martin and Faribault County Transit doesn’t have the money available to purchase the building,” Groskreutz said. “However, grant money will be available next year from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) which would allow them to purchase the garage area and remodel it.”

Groskreutz shared that MnDOT has already inspected the building and knows what needs to be done to it to make it usable for the buses.

“And because they would be using the money to re-purpose an existing building, Transit moves to the top of the grant list for next year, ahead of organizations wanting to construct a new building,” Groskreutz remarked. “It is also possible we would be able to store our Veterans Services Office vans in the garage area. Those are the vans which are used to transport veterans to their VA doctor’s appointments.”

As for the former City Hall offices, the commissioner said there are a number of different possibilities.

“We could move some of the county offices, the EDA for example, which are located at the Ag Center to the former City Hall offices,” Groskreutz said. “The State may also require us to provide more Human Resources offices and we are out of room at their current location so the former City Hall would be an option for us to consider.”