Students from Blue Earth Area, Genesis Classical Academy, Maple River and United South Central Schools came to Blue Earth on Tuesday, Feb. 4 to learn about county and city governments as well as the local judicial system. Their trip also included a stop at the Law Enforcement Center.

Three members of the Blue Earth Giant Park and Playground Committee, Shellie Poetter, Brenda Smith and Shelly Greimann attended the Faribault County Board meeting on Feb. 4. They were seeking a $10,000 financial contribution from the county to help in the building of an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant playground in Giant Park near the Giant statue.

“It will showcase a unique vegetable design and it will be a huge benefit to the community,” Poetter commented. “Tourism also plays a role in the community and 25,000-plus people visit the Giant Museum every year. With its location, it should help stimulate the economy. In 2021, tourism brought in $585,000 in taxes to the county.”

Commissioner Gertrude Paschke made a motion to make the donation and commissioner Bruce Anderson provided a second to get the motion on the floor for discussion.

“It’s unique and made for people with disabilities,” Paschke said. “I am in favor of supporting it.”

Other commissioners expressed their concerns.

“My comment, as it has been on a number of items, is where is the money coming from?” commissioner Bill Groskreutz said. “The other concern is if we do this for Blue Earth, are we going to be asked to do the same thing for Kiester, or Easton?”

“While I can certainly see the benefits of this playground, I agree with commissioner Groskreutz about it not being in our budget,” Loveall said.

All of the board members expressed their thoughts that it was a worthwhile endeavor.

When it came time to vote, commissioners Paschke and Anderson voted to approve the request for $10,000 while Groskreutz and Loveall voted to deny the request. That left board chairman Greg Young to cast the deciding vote.

After taking some time to contemplate his decision, Young announced he was voting no and the motion failed.

Another motion was quickly offered to consider the request when work begins on next year’s budget. That motion passed unanimously.

The talk of next year’s budget had already come up briefly when Groskreutz gave his report on committee meetings he had recently attended.

“One of the things I learned was that if the governor’s budget is passed, we may be forced to increase our tax levy by quite a bit,” Groskreutz commented. “The area affected would be Health and Human Services. Beltrami County has calculated they would have to raise their levy by nine percent if the governor’s proposal passed.”

Groskreutz also shared the latest figures from MVAC covering the latest grant period.

“This is for Faribault County. A total of 506 households received energy assistance that added up to $321,206,” he reported. “Additionally, 141 households received $41,908 in crisis assistance, nine households received a total of $31,360 to help with weatherization of their dwellings, two fix-up loans were approved to a total of $81,946 and 15 households have revolving fund loans that add up to a total of $440,647.”

Anderson added that while attending his MRCI committee meeting, he learned that organization’s funding may be reduced by as much as $1 million in the state’s next budget cycle.

“The state doesn’t know what they are doing yet,” Anderson said. “We will have to wait and see what happens.”

This year’s Boys and Girls County participants, made up of students from the Blue Earth Area, Genesis Classical Academy, Maple River and United South Central schools, attended the County Board meeting for a few minutes to get a taste of how their county government operates.

Easton American Legion commander Joel Rauenhorst, one of the organizers of the group, told the board members the students were able to visit with Fifth District Judge Troy Timmerman to learn about the justice system and they would also learn about city government while visiting the Blue Earth City Hall.

“They will also be going out to the Law Enforcement Center to visit the Sheriff’s Department,” Rauenhorst added.

While at the board meeting the students learned what commissioners do and what they are paid.

“Our biggest responsibility is setting the budget and the tax levy,” commissioner Tom Loveall said. “We decide how much your parents will have to pay in county taxes.”

County coordinator Brian Hov shared what the range of salaries were for county workers and encouraged the students to consider working for the county in the future.

Faribault County Public Works director/county engineer April Wellman came to the meeting to review the proposed construction projects within the county for 2025.

“The drawings have been submitted for State Aid review for the County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 17 project,” Wellman said. “The CSAH 35 project drawings and quantities are being finalized.”

Wellman proceeded to share that five bridges in the county are due to be replaced this year.

“We plan to be opening bids for those projects in March,” Wellman commented. “One of the bridges is on a county road, CR 19. The other bridges set to be replaced are on township roads. One is in Clark Township, one in Minnesota Lake Township, one in Jo Daviess Township and the final one is in Kiester Township.”

According to Wellman, there are also projects scheduled for three municipalities.

“In Wells, work is scheduled to start this spring on CSAH 60, but the railroad has been holding things up,” she stated. “Work started on CSAH 58/64 in the city of Kiester last fall and is slated to resume this spring. As for CSAH 56 in Bricelyn, the variance for the changes in parking have been approved through State Aid and the drawings are in progress.”

The final project for 2025 is the lighting of a couple of rural intersections, specifically at the intersection of CR 16 and CR 17 (470th Avenue) and at the intersection of CR 16 and CR 23 (530th Avenue).

“Scheduled maintenance projects for the year include seal coating 43.4 miles of county roads, striping projects and crack seal projects,” Wellman shared.

Wellman concluded her report by saying she was working on completing an updated five-year plan to present to the board.

Stein Innvaer of the Minnesota Department of Resources (DNR) brought two resolutions to the county for approval.

“The first one would allow the DNR to purchase 155 acres in Section 27 of Kiester Township,” Innvaer commented. “There will be an estimated PILT (payment in lieu of taxes) of $6,533. That is an annual payment. Native prairie seeding will be conducted in the winter of 2025-2026 and a gravel parking lot will be developed off of 590th Avenue on the east side of the property.”

The other piece of land the DNR was proposing to buy was located in Section 5 of Jo Daviess Township and totaled 49 acres.

“The 49 acres is in an existing conservation easement and is an important acquisition for wetland restoration as part of JD (Judicial Ditch) 4 improvement. The land is located between the city of Guckeen and Interstate 90,” Innvaer said. “The annual PILT is $3,487.”

The board approved both purchases.

Planning and Zoning administrator Sara Hauskins attended the County Board meeting to ask for the board’s approval to work on an update to Section 27 of the Board of Adjustment Ordinance.

“Currently, our language is more restrictive than the State on who may be appointed to that board,” Hauskins explained. “Our language states that one member from each of the five districts shall be appointed. The state does not have that requirement and because it has become difficult to find members in each district to serve, I would like to explore the possibility of amending that requirement.”

After some discussion on other requirements, the board directed Hauskins to proceed with working on an update.

Judd Schultz of the Minnesota Valley Action Council (MVAC) attended the meeting to ask the County Board to pass the amended set of Housing Redevelopment Authority (HRA) By-Laws.

“MVAC administers the Faribault County HRA under an administration contract with the county,” Schultz explained. “Recently the HRA Board met and its members amended the HRA By-Laws that hadn’t been reviewed in many years.”

The changes were minor and were approved by the County Board on a unanimous vote.

In other business, the board also:

• Approved the request by Nick Bleess of the Faribault County Sheriff’s Office to attend Mental Health Awareness for Dispatchers training.

• Voted to approve the requests of Isabella Nelson, Tammy Olsen and Kim Poole of the assessor’s office, Darrel Boeckman and Kim Poole of the auditor/treasurer’s office and Marianne Johns of the recorder’s office to attend Group Legal Description training.

• Approved Public Works employees April Wellman, Taylor Doering, John Oswald and Bryan Schaper to attend the District 7 Engineers and Technicians Conference.

• Voted to approve the requests of Faribault County Drainage employees Merissa Lore and Luke Schonborn to attend the Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC) County Drainage Conference.