Even though the county board has put plans for a new community center on hold pending word on whether the City of Grand Marais will help financially support the project, a group of Cook County residents continues to try to convince commissioners to halt the project as it has been proposed by the Cook County Community Center Steering Committee.
A committee of about half a dozen people has been meeting for several months to discuss their conviction that a lot of Cook County citizens are unhappy with the scope of the community center project, which is projected to use up to $11 million of the $20 million the county’s 1 percent Recreation and Infrastructure Tax will be collecting over the course of time.
Why did people vote yes?
This group of people believed that while the 1 percent tax was authorized in a levy by a majority of Cook County voters, the reasons they voted yes varied, and a lot of them did not want to see $11 million spent on a new community center in Grand Marais. Garry Gamble, a spokesperson for the group, likened the reasons people voted yes on the levy to a group of people deciding to go out to eat for dinner. While the majority may agree they want to go out to eat, deciding where to go and how much they can afford to spend is a huge question that still needs to be discussed.
One of the group’s concerns is that the size of the community center is too large for the community to operate affordably. They believe those involved in the planning have too much blind optimism and may be trying to present more of the positive potential in terms of revenue and operating costs and to downplay the financial risks. Other projects that have invested large amounts of public dollars in the belief that the community would see a return on its money have gone south, Gamble said, such as the Cedar Grove Business Park, which has cost a lot of money and not generated a boon in local business.
Another concern of this group, according to Gamble, is that outside consultants were brought in to design and oversee the project instead of using the vast resources that already exist within the community.
The group is not opposed to having a community center. “We are in support of improving the community,” Gamble said, “and improving the community center.” They are also not looking for winners and losers in the use of the recreation and infrastructure tax. They want what’s best for the community, Gamble said.
Seeking answers
In order to get the pulse on how the community at large was feeling about the proposed project, the committee created a survey. They attempted to formulate unbiased questions that wouldn’t simply produce the answers they might have been looking for. Between July and September, 435 people filled out the survey, which was distributed at Satellite Café in Schroeder, Lockport in Lutsen, Trail Center up the Gunflint Trail, the Cook County Senior Center in Grand Marais, Chicago Bay Marketplace in Hovland, Grand Portage Community Center, and a booth at Fisherman’s Picnic.
Forty-seven percent of the respondents were from the City of Grand Marais. Fiftysix percent of the total number of respondents voted against the 1 percent tax and 36 percent voted for it (8 percent gave no response to this question). When asked which project they were hoping the money would primarily be used to support (whether they voted yes or not), 34 percent said broadband, 17 percent said the Grand Marais Public Library addition, 7 percent said biomass energy, 4 percent said a community center, and 3 percent said Superior National at Lutsen Golf Course. Thirty-two percent of those who answered this question either gave multiple answers or had voted yes but did not answer this question.
When asked if they support an $11 million community center expansion, 92 percent said no, 4 percent said yes, and 4 percent either answered yes and no or gave no response. Of those who said no to this question, 83 percent ranked their opposition 0, 1, or 2 on a scale of 0-10, with 0 being “strongly opposed.” Fifty-six percent gave their opposition a ranking of 0. The 17 respondents who said yes ranked their support from 5 to 10, with 10 being “strongly support.” Six respondents gave their support a ranking of 10.
Survey respondents who oppose the community center project were asked to rank their first- and second-highest reason for opposing the project. Sixtyseven percent said their No. 1 reason for opposing the project is that the proposed facility is “way over the top” for a community of this size. Fifty-seven percent said their No. 2 reasons was that they feared the ongoing cost of maintaining such a facility would end up on the backs of the taxpayers. The other two choices they had were “We should make improvements to what already exists” (30 percent ranked this either first or second) and “Due to the uncertain economic time, I believe we should hold off on the project for the time being” (16 percent ranked this either first or second).
Sixty-seven percent of respondents said no one in their families uses the existing Cook County Community Center. Twenty-seven percent said they or their families do us it, and 6 percent gave no response.
Gamble said the risks in forging ahead with the currently proposed community center are more than just financial. “What does it profit the community,” he asked, “if we gain a community center and lose our sense of community?”
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