With the county fair less than two months away, the city of Austin must decide whether to lend fair organizers a helping hand.

At a regularly-scheduled Austin City Council meeting at 5:30 Monday, the council will decide whether to assist the Mower County Fair Board with its fair preparations by providing supplies and staff.

In a letter to Mayor Tom Stiehm, Mower County Fair Board President Neal Anderson detailed a series of requests for city assistance. These included materials to construct booths, use of the city’s “Showmobile” stage and help setting it up, “no parking” signs on the streets surrounding the fairgrounds, and fire protection for a number of grandstand events.

Anderson highlighted how the city would, in turn, benefit during the fair’s off-season.

“In the past the Mower County Fair Board and the City of Austin have exchanged services for various events,” Anderson wrote.

He said the Fair Board would continue to store the city’s stage, mow the grass at Sterling Park and allow the city to dump snow in the fair’s parking lot during the winter. The fairgrounds would also be available for city uses, including for soccer fields by the Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry.

The Mower County Fair is Aug. 7-12 at the fairgrounds in Austin.

 

Between the regularly scheduled meeting and the work session that follows it, the City Council will also decide whether to:

—approve closing Ninth Place SW, on the stretch of the road that borders LaFayette Park for Relay for Life on Aug. 4 and 5.

—approve federal funding toward restoring the Roosevelt Bridge, a project conducted by Mower County. Work will include repairs to the stonework and the installation of a waterproofing system on the top of the arch.

—approve the placement of two new signs at the Mayo Clinic Health System – Austin: one to identify the facility and one to designate the main entrance.

—award a bid to All Weather Roofing to remove the existing roof at Riverside Arena and replace its shingles.

—approve three airport maintenance projects: taxiway pavement repairs, runway pavement repairs and new signs to direct traffic at the intersection of the taxiway and apron.

—allow the Planning and Zoning Commission to contract for the removal of junk and illegally stored vehicles from two Austin properties: 1015 Eighth Ave. NE and 908 Sixth Ave. NW.

—move forward with developing a grant application for the first phase of the Turtle Creek Corridor trail system, which will be part of the Vision 2020 effort to link neighborhoods, parks, shopping and attractions throughout the city.

—sign a Mutual Aid Agreement with Freeborn County. The agreement would lay out any legal issues and a schedule for reimbursement in the event one party needed the help of the other’s emergency services.