Nearly 70 people attended a public meeting Monday, August 24, 2009 to learn more about the seven projects considered for the proposed 1% countywide sales tax coming to a referendum this fall.
The legislature approved the final language of the legislation this spring. It was first requested in 2006 as an extension of the 1% sales tax that had paid for capital improvements to Cook County North Shore Hospital.
Consultant Mike Fischer of LHB Engineering estimated that between 50 and 80 percent of the tax would be generated from non-residents.
A committee comprised of elected officials from the county, City of Grand Marais, West End townships, and Grand Portage Reservation was formed last October and recommended seven projects that could benefit from the tax: improvements to outdoor recreational facilities at community centers in Grand Marais and Tofte, a multi-purpose community center with a pool, gym, fitness center, and meeting rooms in Grand Marais, expansion of the Grand Marais Public Library, installation of fiber optic lines that would bring ultra-high-speed Internet, phone, and TV to most people along current electric lines, capital improvements to Superior National Golf Course in Lutsen, and a biomass-generated heat and electrical plant in Grand Marais.
In a meeting lasting three hours, proponents of each project described its benefits.
Outdoor recreation – Grand Marais
Extension Director Diane Booth talked about outdoor recreational facilities on Community Center property, saying she has written many grants for these projects and could continue to do so. Mike Fischer pointed out that many of the ball fields and play areas in place now were completed with many hours of volunteer labor.
Outdoor recreation – Birch Grove
Tofte supervisor D.C. Olsen said projects at Birch Grove have been whittled down from $1.5 million to $500,000. Their current playground equipment does not meet safety standards. He showed a slide of a deteriorated hockey rink wall, saying it was the wall, not the photo, that was crooked. He also showed photos of the tennis court criss-crossed with large cracks. “If you look closely, you’ll see some defects,” Olsen said. “We mow it!”
Improvements to the tennis and basketball courts, hockey rink, and playground and construction of a paved parking area for a Gitchi-Gami trailhead would be maintained by the Town of Tofte.
Fiber optic infrastructure
County Information Technology Director Danna McKenzie talked about a countywide, county-owned high-speed communications infrastructure network, indicating it may be as indispensable to people as basic Internet access has become. With a possible federal grant, the business model anticipates excess revenue after three years of operation.
Sue Hansen of Lutsen asked what will happen if new housing developments are created in unserved areas. If development occurs in areas now unreached by electrical lines, MacKenzie said, the plan is to partner with Arrowhead Electric to install fiber optic cable along with any new electrical lines.
Grand Marais Public Library
Library Director Linda Chappell said the current library, built in 1987, was designed to meet community needs for 20 years. Library statistics show annual attendance increasing from 24,429 in 1987 to 68,432 in 2008.
The library board is proposing to add a 3,000 square-foot addition to the east front of the building and along the rear wall. Thespace would be used to expand the children’s area, add seating, shelving, and storage, provide more technology access, and improve staff work area.
The library is used by residents, international workers, and visitors of all ages, Chappell said. Many people from outlying areas come to town and spend time at the library while between activities or while waiting for family members doing other things. “Our library facility is used as a community gathering spot,” Chappell said.
Chappell estimated the addition would meet community needs for fewer than 10 years.
Community Center
Booth and Fischer presented ideas for a new community center building. According to Booth, the current community center building was designed for three phases to include a gym, a childcare center, and meeting rooms, but only the first phase was completed. The current building was not built to last, is not energy efficient, and is not aesthetically pleasing, Booth said. Large events can be held in the curling rink when it has no ice, but the acoustics are poor. Not enough tables and chairs are available for large events because of lack of storage.
Any new building should be built to meet the needs of the community for the next 10-20 years, Booth said, “or we shouldn’t build it at all.”
The proposed community center building could include an aquatics center, a field house for numerous sports, a walking track, locker rooms, a fitness center that could partner with a local business such as the Pumphouse, a lounge area, and multi-purpose meeting rooms. “If you could get the right mix of uses,” Fischer said, “you could really attract people.”
A feasibility study showed that combining various amenities the community already funds into one building could result in lower operating costs. “For a community of 5,400,” Fischer said, “the most sustainable thing you can do is to stop building everything separately.”
District energy plant
Buck Benson of the nonprofit Cook County Local Energy Project talked about the proposed biomass-fueled energy plant that would use “readily available” logging slash and refuse from the Firewise program’s forest fire mitigation project that is currently burned in U.S. Forest Service and DNR slash piles. Businesses and homes could benefit as well, and the cost savings from lower energy bills for public buildings in Grand Marais would benefit all taxpayers, Benson said.
Plants of this kind are heating and generating electricity for European towns bigger that Grand Marais, and they emit almost no particulates. Theydo not require 24-hour operators, and County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said the temperature of the water used to deliver the heat creates less stress on equipment than steam plants. Theycan use “dirty” wood products called “hog fuel” and could provide hot water for high-use buildings such as restaurants.
According to Patty Johnson of the U.S. Forest Service, removing slash from the forest would help the Forest Service do what it wants but cannot afford to do. It would also create logging jobs. “It’s like a stimulus package that [would come] to Cook County every year,” Benson said. “It would be money we feel would be prudently spent.”
Paul Nelson of Firewise recommended the project as well, saying that forest fire danger exists throughout the county, and getting rid of extra biomass would make sense both ecologically and economically.
Thecity is hoping to receive a federal grant that would pay for half of the cost.
Superior National Golf Course
Mark Sandbo, on the Superior National at Lutsen Golf Course board, said Superior National, “the jewel of the North Shore,” is one of the only public courses funded by its own revenue. The course is owned by the Cook County- Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA). Until revenue bonds are paid off in 2015, the course would benefit from money for capital improvements to maintain and improve its quality.
He recommended funding all seven projects in some way with the 1% tax but said even the savings and income from some of the other projects could be used to help pay for capital improvements at Superior National. The tax would be a great way for the county to get the money it needs for the projects it wants to do, he said. The tax would benefit the community’s kids, bring jobs, and facilitate projects the community would otherwise “pay through the nose” to fund. “The 1% sales tax is really the key. We need to figure out a way to do it,” he said.
Moving forward to referendum
The following morning at the regular county board meeting, the 1% tax committee met with Fischer again. Fritz Sobanja said he believes all the projects are good, and implementing them would be “almost like building an industry.”
The committee discussed how to promote the tax throughout the county. They talked about using the $20,000,000 (plus the cost of bonding) that the legislature will allow the county to collect to fund at least a portion of each project and finding other funding for the rest that would be needed.
The county board voted to include all seven projects in the referendum. All meet the criteria established by the tax committee which calls for projects that contribute to a vibrant economy, enhance needed infrastructure, and improve quality of life by promoting recreation, culture, and health and that are located strategically to benefit all residents and include commitments to fund longterm maintenance costs.
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