Grand Marais Mayor Sue Hakes told city councilors Nov. 9 that now is the time to move forward with projects approved a week earlier by voters when they passed a 1 percent sales tax referendum.
“That was our number one goal, and we helped pass it. It’s fabulous,” Hakes said. “But how do we take this and apply it to our goals? How can we support the process of getting a pool and community center built?”
By way of suggestion, the mayor distributed a draft letter she wrote to the Cook County commissioners, who will decide when and on which of seven specific projects the $20 million will be spent. In the letter, Hakes states that, “The city council is eager to begin the work of building a community center/recreation area in Grand Marais. We believe the county board, with the support of the city council and the citizens of Cook County, could break ground for such a facility as early as 2010.”
“Building a community center garnered the most support from the residents of Cook County during the public process phase of the referendum project. Last March, the city council identified the passage of the 1 percent referendum and a community center/swimming pool as top priorities for 2009-2010. There is great synergy between the goals of the public, the city and the county board,” the letter continues. “The city council is serious in its intent to make the long-awaited dream of a community center/recreation area become a reality …and we will work earnestly with you to make it happen. We intend to begin working immediately with the community
center committee.”
Although there was general agreement among councilors that they should take a role in moving the projects forward, there was some disagreement over exactly how that should be done.
Kay Costello, who is also a member of the library board, said she couldn’t support the letter as written. “It’s too focused on the community center, and the library is overlooked,” she said in reference to a $700,000 library expansion project that was also on the list of those approved by voters. “I’m just not comfortable with sending so focused a letter.”
Hakes pointed out that there wouldn’t be enough money collected from the new sales tax to do both the community center and library (assuming about $9 million remains earmarked for an ongoing broadband project), and reiterated that council’s number 1 priority on the list was a pool and community center. “There’s not nearly enough money to fund all the proposals, and the library is the nicest building we have,” said the mayor, adding that for that reason, the library expansion project “does not rise to the top of the list.”
Councilor Tim Kennedy said he believes the city’s role should be to promote communication between the county board and city council, and to be a part of the discussion. But, he said, council shouldn’t make specific recommendations – at least not yet.
“We do want to be actively involved with making the decision. These are important community projects, but they’re also important Grand Marais projects, and I don’t think we should single out one above another,” Kennedy said. He pointed out that the projects are at various stages of readiness, and council’s job now should be to promote and maintain communication with the county commissioners as the decisionmaking process progresses.
Kennedy also observed that the community center project, while it is at the top of council’s list, “has the least clarity of all the projects,” and will require more planning than most of the others, including a “re-energizing” of the community center board and a need to get all the other stakeholders together again.
Hakes, though, said she “was tired of not making decisions,” and said council could help the county board by making specific requests, such as she did in her letter. “It’s time to start cutting things off the list,” she said.
However, the mayor conceded that she was in the minority, and agreed to re-word her letter to the county to include the library project as a priority. Councilors then said they would support the letter, and would plan on attending an upcoming county board meeting to present it and express their interest in the process.
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