Mar 15, 2023
FAIRMONT– Fairmont City Administrator Cathy Reynolds detailed the 2022 annual report for municipal services during Monday night’s council meeting. Reynolds said this is just the second year the city has put together an annual report.
“We looked at a way of getting information out to the community so it could see and hear about all of the great work that city staff does. We started it to fill a void of information for the community,” Reynolds said.
She said each department head is responsible for compiling its data and information at the end of the year. It’s then pulled together and put into a booklet for easy viewing.
Included in the report are some basic statistics on Fairmont which share that Fairmont has over 680 businesses and 5,291 housing units and that the median household income is $49,402.
The city of Fairmont accounts for 51 percent of the population of Martin County and 3 percent of the entire population of Minnesota.
Information included under the fire department says there are currently 30 firefighters with over 353 years of combined service. Reynolds said 32 firefighters is considered full and that the department recruits on an annual basis.
“There were 36 fire calls and 54 rescue and EMS calls last year. That is the majority of the calls,” Reynolds said.
She said an interesting but unfortunate piece was that total property loss reported last year was $20 million, which was due to a fire on a farm that resulted in significant property damage and loss of livestock.
As for the police department, it responded to 9,117 service calls, which was up 5.5 percent from 2021.
Reynolds said more information on the department can be found in its own annual report, which can be viewed at fairmontpolice.org.
Moving to community development, Reynolds said the department has three full-time employees that are responsible for issuing zoning permits, building permits and land disturbance permits.
“In 2022 we had 62 commercial permits issued with a total value for our community of $16 million. That’s our businesses in our community reinvesting in their properties and their buildings and locations,” Reynolds said.
There were also 464 residential building permits issued in 2022, which include new homes, renovations and additions.
These numbers are similar to 2021 where there were 69 commercial building permits issued and 461 residential building permits issued.
Some highlights for the community development department include a new community development software that’s currently being implemented. The city zoning codes are also in the process of being updated. Finally, the department has been engaged with the Fairmont Area Life positivity campaign.
The city clerk department has one full-time employee who is responsible for making sure the city is in compliance with federal, state and local laws and regulations. They also prepare and maintain official reports, legal documents and financial records.
In 2022 the city clerk processed 73 data requests, which was down slightly from 78 data requests in 2021.
“We had three elections last year that had to be planned, staffed and managed. There were 51 election judges that worked with the city clerk,” Reynolds said.
As for the electric department, there are 10 full-time employees that maintain over 6,000 electric meters and 136 miles of electric distribution systems.
Over the past year, the department has been working on the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project by replacing water and electric meters. It also installed LED lighting at Veterans Park and was recognized by the American Power Association and Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency for excellence in electric reliability.
The wastewater department has five full-time employees that treated over 457 millions gallons of wastewater. In 2022 the department replaced pumps and electrical panels at the Johnson Street lift station, Albion/Lair lift station, Albion/Webster lift station and Woodland/Lake Park Blvd lift station. It also slip lined 7,800 ft. of sanitary sewer.
In the water department, there are 11 full-time employees and one seasonal employee.
“I always stress that our water department operates 365 days a year, 24 hours a day and is manned and staffed for that time by four employees,” Reynolds said.
She said there’s one water relief employee who helps fill shifts but otherwise one of four people is operating the water treatment plant 24 hours a day every day of the year.
In 2022 the water department treated over 500 million gallons of water. The department maintains 656 hydrants and 88 miles of water mains.
The report includes that there are three water towers, two ground storage tanks and one industrial booster station that the department is in charge of. Another highlight in the report says that the water department repaired 17 water leaks in 2022 including 13 water mains, two hydrants and two service lines.
The airport department has just one full-time employee. There are 35 based aircraft onsite and no hangar slots available, compared to 2021 where there were two slots available.
“We saw an increase in jet fuel sales by 15 percent this year and gas sales by 12 percent. People were still flying even though gas prices went up,” Reynolds said.
In 2023 some interior and exterior renovations are planned for the 38-year-old terminal building to modernize it and bring it in line with what it’s being used for today.
There are seven full-time employees in the finance department. The department is responsible for the administration, direction and coordination of all city financial services involving financial planning, budgeting, treasurer management, investments, purchasing, accounting, payroll, insurance and utility customer services.
In 2022 the department was heavily involved in the AMI project to help ensure everything moves efficiently and that billing runs smoothly.
Moving to the liquor store department, the report says there are three full-time employees and 15 part-time employees. In 2022 the total amount of sales came to $4,574,062, which was down slightly from $4,586,742 in 2021.
In 2022 the store had over 152,000 customers with an average purchase of $32.89. Beer accounted for 48 percent of the sales with liquor coming in at 38 percent and wine at 12 percent.
The money from the municipal liquor store traditionally funds a number of projects in the community and 2022 was no different. Projects in 2022 included skate park repairs, Gomsrud Park planning, concession gazebo at Jeffrey Kot Soccer Complex, Cedar Creek Park trail expansion and more.
The engineering department had four full-time employees in 2022, but one retired and two, including former city engineer Troy Nemmers, left in 2022. It still has four employees including a civil engineer, GIS engineering technician, water resources technician and engineer technician.
“A lot of the work that they were doing in 2022 was the street rating that is done in the off years from the street improvement program to plan,” Reynolds said.
In the parks department, there were 10 full-time employees and this past summer there were five seasonal employees, which was down from last year when there were seven seasonal employees.
The department is responsible for maintaining the city’s 35+ parks and green spaces and 22 shelter buildings. The report says there are over 250 benches and 100 picnic tables, along with 20 fishing docks and five public access sites and 22 playgrounds.
The maintenance department is included in the parks department and it also maintains more than 20 city-owned buildings. The department made upgrades to the Sylvania Park concession building, incubator building and wastewater treatment facility in 2022.
“They planted and cared for 1,050 flowers and 25 new trees in the city in 2022 and trimmed over 2,00 tress and removed 100 plus trees, unfortunately. With Emerald Ash Borer that number will continue to increase on an annual basis,” Reynolds said.
There are 11 full-time employees and one seasonal employee in the street department. It maintains 74 miles of streets and alleys, eight bridges and 41 miles of storm sewer.
The shop is included in the street department so members also maintain and repair the entire city fleet which includes 25 large vehicles, 65 small vehicles, 14 pieces of heavy equipment, 35 pieces of small equipment, 29 trailers and more than 12 fire department and police vehicles.
“In 2022, approximately 800 tons of blacktop were applied to street and parking lot asphalt repairs. Over 10 tons of material were used for street and parking lot crack filling. In the years where we’re not doing big construction projects, our street crews are out there doing repair work and crack filling,” Reynolds said.
Finally, under the Aquatic Park, the report says there were 63 seasonal employees in 2022, including the add-on of a new seasonal manager position. There were 229 season memberships sold and 21,060 visitors who came through, which was up from 20,908 visitors in 2021.
Several hard copies of the report are available at City Hall. Otherwise it can be viewed on the city’s website at fairmont.org. The powerpoint that was shown at the city council meeting will also play on the local access channel.
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