Why wait until Earth Day to clean up our community? Molly LaFreniere and her son, Matthew, 2, spent some time on April 5 cleaning up the Cook County Community Center park area. Molly said, “We collected four huge bags of garbage and now the park is officially clean! I hope it stays that way all summer.” With Molly and Matthew is baby Cadience, just 9 months old.
In fits and starts, the pursuit of a new Cook County community center in Grand Marais continues. The county board, which holds the 1 percent sales-tax-funded project purse strings, voted April 17 to continue exploring initial concept ideas and cost estimates for attaching a facility to the west wing of the Cook County Schools complex. They put a cap of $5,000 on this portion of the process, which will not involve retaining an architectural firm for any drawings or engineering.
The board also authorized the county attorney’s office to initiate discussions with the school on assuming ownership of the property as well as with the Duluth YMCA regarding the feasibility of the Y managing facility operations and programming.
The school board is officially remaining neutral on whether a new community center should be built, partly to keep it from losing potential support for an operating levy the school expects to seek when the current levy terminates. According to Superintendent Beth Schwarz, the west wing needs about $300,000 in renovations, and selling that portion of the building and grounds to the county could help it save some money.
Schwarz recommended that the community center steering committee and county board listen carefully to the YMCA’s assessment regarding the feasibility of a new community center. “YMCAs rarely fail,” she said.
Duluth YMCA Executive Director Chris Francis said the Y has collected demographic data on the county but is still conducting an internal evaluation of the feasibility of a community center and associated programming in Cook County.
Ys typically manage the cost of programming and building operation with user fees and fundraising and leave large capital expenses in the hands of the facilities’ owners. The YMCA could provide information on what kinds of amenities are typically successful and help determine how much space would be needed.
Whether the City of Grand Marais will help fund the ongoing cost of operating the new community center remains up in the air. The city is embroiled in legal entanglements related to a previous commitment it made to work with Burbach Aquatics on any plans for a new municipal pool to replace the one the city has been operating since the 1970s.
Commissioner Bruce Martinson suggested that the county figure out a way to get help from the city without the city directly funding the facility, such as by no longer absorbing the cost of plowing streets for the city.
When asked, Chris Francis said the program could be in the black if the amounts the city and county have been paying to cover operating deficits for the Grand Marais Municipal Pool were put into the projected budget.
Certain portions of the project, such as a new hockey rink, can proceed without knowing whether the city will participate and without final plans outlined. The county board capped the total cost of indoor and outdoor recreational amenities in and around the proposed community center at $9 million.
The direction of the project continues to change as community members express opinions, but a lot has been accomplished through all the work that has been done so far, consultant
Tom Wacholz of ORB Management said. “The cost of time” could become a factor, however, he said, if bonding rates and building costs were to go up. After the meeting, he also said his company profits less the longer the project takes to complete.
County Commissioner Jim Johnson said he was “baffled” by accusations that the process hasn’t been open to the public. A citizens group called the Citizens for Cook County Committee made a request at the preceding regular county board meeting for a survey of taxpayers to determine whether demand for a new community center would justify the expense. Johnson said the 1 percent sales tax was approved by voters already, and the community center was clearly listed as one of the potential projects to be funded by that tax.
New ideas for use of the recreation and infrastructure sales tax continue to roll in. For example, the Cook County Tennis Association would like two courts resurfaced and the Cook County Historical Society would like an addition on its museum. The state legislature authorized the collection of up to $20 million plus the cost of bonding for capital improvements throughout the county.
The next Community Center Steering Committee meeting will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, April 23 in the commissioners’ room of the courthouse. These meetings are open to the public.
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