Fertile City Council Meets

FERTILE, MN—Monday night’s Fertile City Council meeting featured discussion of two familiar topics.  One was the lack of a permanent administrator for the city-owned Fair Meadow Nursing Home.  Fertile Mayor Brian Nephew says there haven’t been many candidates for the job coming in from HDG, the search firm the City hired well over a year ago.

Nephew and City Councilwoman Mary Kiefert expressed interest in being part of a new search group for a permanent administrator along with members of the Fair Meadow Advisory Board.

The other topic was amending the Fertile City Code.  For months, City Administrator Lisa Liden has supported changing the code to redefine the mayor’s role to make it in line with the League of Minnesota Cities’  best practices.  The proposed change has been tabled at the Council’s January, February and March meetings.  Nephew says the issue came up again on Monday.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the Fertile City Council approved amendments to the job descriptions of the deputy city administrator and deputy public works director….giving them authority to make decisions in the absence of their superior.  And a group called the Fertile Events Group spoke to the Council about building a multi-use building on the Polk County Fairgrounds that would be used for youth and community activities.  The Group asked for and received a waiver for sewer hookup and reducing water or sewer rates.