It’s so unfortunate that the city had to drop out of this process.
The county’s Community Center Committee has been busy and is ready to present to the public its preliminary plans for a new community center. The proposal is for a 43,142-square-foot facility to be located between the current Community Center and Cook County High School. The plans are not set in stone, but the projected annual net operating cost of over $800,000 could affect what the community has to say about the project.
Consultant Tom Wacholz of ORB Management and Tim Meyer of The Meyer Group and JLG Architects presented a sketch of the proposed facility, which would include a pool, hot tub, and sauna, a wellness center, locker rooms and restrooms, multipurpose rooms, banquet space, a concession stand, a warming house, administ rat ive offices, and a rooftop garden. The projected cost is $11,144,600.
The plans do not include a walking/running track or an indoor ice rink. The committee is discussing the possibility of turning the current Community Center building, which holds the Cook County Curling Club ice rink, over to the Curling Club. One of the primary goals, according to Tim Meyer, was to create a multi-functional facility that the county could afford to maintain.
Annual gross operating expenses are preliminarily projected at over $1,000,000, offset by projected revenues of just under $200,000. Current amenities throughout the community that are expected to move into the new facility, such as current Community Center programs, Cook County Extension, Community Education, and the Grand Marais Municipal Pool, are expected to add $600,000 of annual funding for operating expenses. Commissioner Sue Commissioner Sue Hakes ”
Hakes said the county might spend $200,000 more per year to operate the new facility than is currently being spent on the amenities that would move into it.
While the Grand Marais
Municipal Pool operating costs of $300,000 are listed under “current county funding,” a significant portion of the money that keeps the current pool going comes from income generated by other city-owned amenities, such as the campground and the liquor store. Because of threatened litigation regarding an openended contract the city entered with Burbach Aquatics several years ago for design of a new pool, the city has chosen not to participate in or fund any projects that involve building a new pool without the involvement of Burbach Aquatics.
This would leave a significant portion of the $300,000 the current pool gets in funding unavailable to the county, although Commissioner Fritz
Sobanja thought the city might find some way to help the county out with non-poolrelated expenses.
Commissioner Bruce
Martinson said he didn’t think his West End constituents would be happy with the operating expense projections.
Even if they consider the fact that the county has been giving the city $70,000 a year to help pay operating expenses on the current pool, he estimated the county would be paying out over $300,000 more for the new community center than it has been paying for current amenities throughout the community. He expressed concern that the state could impose levy limits, forcing the county to consider reducing other services, such as Highway Department projects, in order to keep the community center open.
“It’s so unfortunate that the city had to drop out of this process,” Commissioner Hakes said. “We could have picked Burbach, but we chose to go another way.” Burbach did not submit a bid for the aquatics center, however. She pointed out that Cook County voters passed the referendum authorizing recreational projects, a new community center being one of the biggest and costliest.
Commissioner Hakes said extra income to operate the new community center could come from incorporating energy-efficient infrastructure, the ability to be efficient in staffing the facility, and possibly moving the Cook County Senior Center program to the new building. The projected costs are not final, she emphasized. She, Tom Wacholz, and Tim Meyer indicated they hope the annual outlay will continue to be reduced as they explore revenue and cost-cutting possibilities.
Tim Meyer said the revenue projections have been “very conservative” in order to avoid any surprises. “We might even be able to make money with the community center,” he said. He said he expects significant revenues to come from visitors from outside the county.
Meyer said they hope to break ground on the new facility this summer and have the building closed in by the first hard freeze.
By a vote of 3-1, the board passed a motion authorizing the committee to move into the design development phase and to bring their design ideas to the public Tuesday, May 10 at 7:00 p.m. at the courthouse in Grand Marais and Wednesday, May 11 at 7:00 p.m. at Birch Grove Community Center in Tofte. Commissioner Jim Johnson was absent and Commissioner Bruce Martinson voted no. He said his no vote was because he wanted to see operating costs go down.
County, ORB, and EDA
The board voted to rescind its April 19 motion approving a contract drafted by County Attorney Tim Scannell for ORB Management to act as construction manager on improvements to Superior National at Lutsen golf course. Scannell had not been at the meeting when the first motion was passed and had not intended for the contract to be approved. The county had not ironed out with the Cook County-Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA) whether the EDA, which owns the course, wanted the county to work directly with ORB on golf course improvements.
The board also passed a motion authorizing Tom Wacholz and ORB Management to meet with the EDA to discuss hiring ORB as a contruction manager on golf course improvements and authorizing Attorney Scannell to draft an agreement with the EDA for the county and the EDA to jointly hire ORB to act as construction manager on the project.
In other business:
Cook County Higher Education will be offering a class on bonding May 11 from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. to help local contractors be prepared to bid on some of the 1 percent projects, such as the Grand Marais Public Library expansion project. A pre-bid meeting will be held at 3:00 p.m. that day, right after the class, at the library. The county board agreed to pay the $250 cost of the class so that contractors could attend at no cost.
The board met with accountants Carolyn Drude and Bruce Kimmel of Ehlers and Associates regarding bonding for the 1 percent projects.
Drude said that they will need to clarify with a bond attorney the difference between what they could spend bond money on and what they could spend 1 percent revenue on, because federal regulations put some restrictions on what bond money can be spent on. Kimmel said there might be instances in which the county would need to use 1 percent proceeds to pay for project expenses directly.
Kimmel also suggested that the county consider putting some other expenses into potential bonds, such as upgrading the county’s emergency communication radio system to be compatible with the state’s new Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) system.
County Auditor-Assessor Braidy Powers said they would try to bond only once for the 1 percent projects. Drude said the 1 percent projects would not cause the county to come near its bonding limit. She said the county’s fund balance would influence the interest rate the county could get on its bonds. Kimmel said they ran some numbers on bonding for the 1 percent projects and found if the county went for the longest repayment schedule it could get, it would probably pay an interest rate of just under 5 percent.
Commissioners Martinson and Hall said Hovland may be requesting some of the 1 percent money for new playground equipment.
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