After two public meetings the week before regarding plans for a new community center in Grand Marais, the county board discussed what the public had to say about the proposed project at its meeting on Tuesday, May 17, 2011. What the public really wants may be a bone of contention among commissioners, however.
Review of the feedback
“I thought that the meetings were extremely productive… I would say ‘spirited,’” said Commissioner and Community Center Steering Committee Chair Sue Hakes. A lot of people expressed concerns about cost, saying the proposed design is too big and too expensive, she said. People are also concerned about the cost of relocating so many of the amenities that are currently on the proposed site east of the current Community Center – newly refurbished tennis courts, a hockey rink, a skate park, and a playground.
“I take that feedback very, very seriously,” Commissioner Hakes said. She said she wants this facility to be affordable. “What I don’t want is for the community to go through a tumultuous divide over this,” she said.
Hakes asked the board, absent Jim Johnson who was at a National Association of Counties conference, for approval to downsize and requested feedback on relocating the outdoor amenities. She said she thinks they could cut the project down by 30 percent while still keeping amenities and not losing the revenue that would help pay operating expenses. If amenities are cut out of the building, however, she wants the county board to take responsibility for it rather than having people blame the volunteers on the steering committee, she said.
Commissioner Jan Hall said she didn’t think the tennis courts should be relocated after some of them were just redone last year. She agreed that the first design was too big and too expensive but supported continuing to work on the project.
Contention among commissioners
“Most people are supportive of a community center in this community,” Commissioner Hakes said.
That’s not what he’s been hearing from his constituents, Commissioner Bruce Martinson said. “I think opposition is much greater than what I’m led to believe by your statement,” he said.
Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said he wanted all of the documents and minutes related to the Community Center Steering Committee’s work to be included in the packet of materials they receive before each county board meeting. Having this information would help them “make a clear judgment on this,” he said. He said the commissioners were not getting the information being discussed by the committee. Commissioner Hakes said she had assumed the commissioners were reading meeting minutes on the county website but was willing to have paper copies included in the board packets.
“This is your project,” Hakes said. “You have been voting yes for it all this time.” She said she wanted to know, however, if the board was no longer in support of the project.
Martinson said he supports Hakes in moving forward and in downsizing the building. Commissioner Hakes challenged Martinson, asking him if he really was supportive since he always qualifies the project with the words “if we build it” and couches the project in the negative, she said. Martinson told Hakes she is always too positive about it.
She is thinking about the entire county, Hakes said, not just her district. She agreed that the board should be informed as the project unfolds. “You guys really need to know what’s going on here,” she said. “It is a five-person decision and I feel like I’m out there flapping in the wind.”
Plans for the fitness centers
Commissioner Martinson addressed inconsistencies he had heard in the public meetings regarding plans for the new facility. At the first meeting in Grand Marais, he said, people were told the school’s fitness center, Upper Shore Center for Fitness, would not be moved to the new community center. The next night in Tofte, people were told it would.
Hakes answered, saying the committee is considering relocating the fitness center to the new facility but may leave some equipment behind for use by the school.
Sobanja asked what would happen to Upper Shore Center For Fitness and Grand Marais’ privately owned fitness center, the Pumphouse, if a third fitness center went into the new facility. Hakes said that the committee is not thinking of adding a third fitness center and that the two existing fitness centers would not see any new competition.
Pumphouse owners Brian and Marcy Olsen are concerned, Sobanja said. Those running the new community center are going to try to get the community to buy memberships in order to make the facility solvent, he said. This could create more competition with their business.
The board scheduled a special meeting for 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 24 after the regular meeting in the morning to discuss the community center and other projects to be completed with proceeds of the county’s 1 percent sales and use tax.
Signatories assigned for library project
Somebody has to sign the checks that will be written to pay the contractors building the Grand Marais Public Library addition. The commissioners authorized Auditor- Treasurer Braidy Powers and Commissioner Sobanja to sign, with Commissioner Martinson as an alternate. Powers and Sobanja will meet monthly with the contractors and ORB Management, which is overseeing the work, to go over the bills.
Two signatures will be required on the checks, and the signatories were authorized to sign off on change orders of $5,000 or less.
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