County considering making a $20,000 donation to the Fair
By Kevin Mertens – Staff Writer | Aug 9, <a href="https://bitcomme.com/6-best-accounting-software-for-mac-in-2026/” title=”6 Best Accounting Software for Mac in 2026″>2026
Faribault County Fair Board members Daryl Murray, left, and Marlin Prange, give the County Commissioners an update on how this year’s County Fair did financially.
Members of the Faribault County Fair Board attended the Faribault County Board meeting on Aug. 4 and provided the commissioners with a financial update following the recently concluded Faribault County Fair.
“There are actually two separate entities involved,” Fair Board president Marlin Prange reminded the commissioners. “The Faribault County Ag Society owns the land and buildings and the Fair Board operates the County Fair.”
Prange reported through the end of July the Ag Society was showing net income of $16,348. Their total income was $135,479 and was mostly from farm rent ($98,234) and building rent ($21,045). The Ag Society’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
“We also had some extra income of $6,200 from the sale of horse gates,” Prange commented. “They were from when we used to host the Fjord Horse Show and we don’t do that anymore so we sold the gates.”
Prange explained the Ag Society spent $34,213 for maintenance work done on the quonset roof and some restroom repairs.
“We also paid $20,406 in real estate taxes and $19,589 in insurance costs,” Prange added.
Board member Daryl Murray told the board they did not have all of the expenses yet from the Fair.
“It looks like we will have a loss of about $30,000,” Murray reported. “We lost money at the Grandstand, but the Grandstand has never made money. However, it does get people out to the Fair.”
The rodeo remains the most popular event at the Grandstand and produced $10,153 in income while Autocross was the second most popular with $5,976 of income.
“It cost $8,000 to host the Autocross and $18,825 to host the rodeo,” Murray said. “But again, those things bring people to the Fair.”
Murray told the commissioners the Fair Board was pleased with the attendance at the Fair.
“The Tiger Encounter was very popular,” he said. “And people were happy to have a carnival back at the Fair. And the people with the carnival we had were some of the nicest carnival people we have ever worked with. They went home with about $40,000 between what we paid them to come and what they made selling tickets. They would like to see that number closer to $50,000.”
That brought the discussion to another point, would the County Board consider including the Fair in their budget?
Asked what amount they were looking for, Murray replied, “We are asking for $20,000.”
The board members told Murray they would take his request into consideration when budget talks begin later this month.
Angie Piltaver and Forrest Hasty of the Minnesota Department of Transportation District 7 Office came to the meeting to provide the commissioners with an annual review.
“District 7 is responsible for 3,200 lane miles, 475 bridges, over 9,700 culverts in the 13 counties that comprise the district,” Piltaver commented. “The DOT owns eight percent of the roads which carries 60 percent of the traffic.”
Work being done in 2026 by MnDOT includes the Highway 22/109 project in Wells and the resurfacing of Highway 22 from the south side of Wells to the Iowa board.
“They are going to do a micro-milling first,” Hasty explained. “Then they will add three quarters of an inch of new material. It is an ultra-thin bonded wear course.”
Looking further into the future, Piltaver said 2031 and 2032 will see a lot of bridge work in the county.
“All the bridges going over I-90 are scheduled for work,” Piltaver commented. “That could include work on the bridge deck along with work on the guard rails.”
Public Works/county engineer April Wellman was also at the meeting to talk about current road and bridge issues in Faribault County.
“The work on County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 56 in Bricelyn is complete and I did a site walk-through with an engineer from Bolton and Menk to review the project,” Wellman said. “The work on CSAH 58 and CSAH 64 in Kiester is scheduled to be completed by the end of August.”
Wellman told the board that work on the bridge east of Kiester on CSAH 2 began on July 20 and work is scheduled to begin on Aug. 24 on the bridge located on CSAH 8.
The County Board also took action to approve one child care forgivable loan/grant and six LHTF (Local Housing Trust Fund) grants.
Faribault County Economic Development Authority specialist Danielle Hayter-Johnson brought the loan/grant applications before the board after the Faribault County EDA had given their preliminary approval to the items at their meeting on July 21.
A total of $5,000 was approved to go to a child care provider in Blue Earth who has been in business for over 30 years.
“The amount is split between a $2,500 grant and a $2,500 forgivable loan,” Hayter-Johnson explained. “It will be used to replace windows that no longer meet code.”
Following the approval of the request, Hayter-Johnson told the board the remaining balance in the Child Care Fund is $5,288.
“Remind me again where that money came from,” commissioner Tom Loveall said.
“It was before my time here but as I understand things, the money came to the county through a broadband grant,” Hayter-Johnson replied.
The six LHTF grant applications, which totaled over $90,000, were also approved.
“With the approval of these grants there is a little less than $30,000 remaining in LHTF,” Hayter-Johnson commented.
Amy Salinas, office supervisor for the Faribault County License Bureau, came to the board with a resolution for the board to consider. It seeks State of Minnesota revenue sharing to help sustain deputy registrar offices.
“The Department of Public Safety has transferred 40 percent of their data entry work on to deputy registrars without due compensation for what are additional time-consuming tasks,” Salinas explained. “A 2022 State-commissioned independent expert review specifically calls on the state to share 25-50 percent of all filing fee revenue derived from the department’s online and mail-in transactions with all local deputy registrar offices.”
The board passed the resolution.
• Voted to place the large desk formerly used by the Blue Earth City Council when they held their meetings at their former location on Sixth Street on the MNBID auction site. It the desk does not sell, the board will take the matter under consideration again.
• Approved the training request of Drainage Department employees Luke Schonborn, Dustin Anderson and Merissa Lore to attend the Minnesota Association of Drainage Inspectors Summer Conference.
• Approved the requests of Kim Poole, Terri Van Reese, Sami Swanson, Chuck Schrader and Darrel Boeckman of the auditor/treasurer’s office to take Legal Description Training provided by Minnesota Counties Computer Cooperative and Pro-West and Associates.
• Approved the requests of Luke Slaughter and Teresa Grabow of the Sheriff’s Department to take a Drive the Road for Telecommunicators course.
