If you build it, will they come? And if you build it, who will pay the maintenance costs? Will it go on the county coffers if, down the road, costs exceed revenues? Then what? Do the county taxpayers pick up the extra costs?
These were some of the questions asked at the meeting held at the Birch Grove Community Center in Tofte on Wednesday, May 11. The meeting was held to discuss the current proposal to build a community center in Grand Marais that would cost approximately $11 million under current design plans.
But, said Commissioner and Community Steering Committee Chair Sue Hakes, “This is a snapshot for the design process. Don’t think what you are seeing here tonight is what you will get. We want your input.” Hakes moderated the meeting.
Between 50 and 60 people attended the meeting hosted by county staff, ORB Management and the Meyer Group/JLG Architects and the steering committee chair. ORB Management is the firm hired to help the county board orchestrate the seven projects to be funded by the county’s one percent sales tax.
The one percent tax is expected to generate about $20 million in the next 20 years and will be used for recreation purposes.
The biggest project is the community center. As it looks now—and it is only in preliminary planning stages—the cost to build would be around $11 million with maintenance costs projects to be close to $900,000 annually.
If built today, the community center would be 44,980 feet and would contain a 6-lane swimming pool, children’s pool, hot tub, locker room, youth center, space for a senior center, administrative offices, kitchen, double gymnasium striped for volleyball and indoor tennis, wellness center, large meeting room and a walking track around the top of the gym. There are also several other rooms that could be used by the community for functions like Boy Scout or Girl Scout meetings.
“We would like this to be a multi-generational facility that would be used by babies to people 105 years old,” Hakes said.
Hakes added, “We are trying to create a conservative financial model. We are trying to be responsible to the public.”
Hakes noted that if projected maintenance/wage costs couldn’t be trimmed or enough money couldn’t be generated in the form of memberships or leases, the plan would have to be scaled down to make the maintenance costs more affordable.
The building would be constructed between the current community center and the high school and would necessitate removing and replacing the new tennis courts (at a cost of $600,000); removing and relocating the skate park, removing and relocating the playground, removing and relocating the hockey rink, and possibly adding a new baseball/softball field at an estimated cost of $250,000.
After presenting the general concept and use of spaces in the center, Hakes opened the floor to questions.
Jim Dvorak asked where the revenue figures came from. He said that if the current pool gets $75,000 in user fees, it seemed unreasonable to project a figure of $316,000 in user fees for the new pool.
But Hakes said that more members would join because they would also get to use the fitness center, day rooms, have access to exercise classes that might be taught there, and that, “The level of quality and newness will help sell it.”
Diane Booth, who is on the committee and helped compile information for the design study, said she estimated 395 memberships would be sold to generate about $231,000 in revenue. Fees would range from $25/month for young adults, $35/month for adults, $30/month for seniors, $55/month for families and a daily admission fee of $4.00.
Booth also said memberships could be tiered so people with lower incomes could get a break on fees.
“That’s still projecting a 300% increase,” over current rates, noted Dvorak.
Hakes was asked about the community center competing with the school’s fitness center and the Pumphouse Fitness Center, a private club owned by Brian and Marcy Olsen. She answered that Cook County Community Education may move its fitness center to the community center and therefore there wouldn’t be any more competition than there is now.
Cook County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said he had been looking at numbers of people using the pool and other local recreational facilities and he estimated that at least 120 people per day would use the new community center.
Dennis Rysdahl asked about the City of Grand Marais and the legal issues that are keeping the city from helping to pay maintenance costs of the new pool.
“They have legal issues to work out,” said Hakes, who added, “As former Mayor of Grand Marais I want you to know how excited the city council is about this community center. They worked hard to help pass the 1 percent sales tax.”
Hakes also said the council wanted the current pool closed because it is old and costs too much to operate.
Rysdahl asked if geothermal heat was being discussed. “I cut my expenses in half,” said Rysdahl after he converted his pools to geo-thermal heat. He was told that geothermal had been looked at and put aside, but that engineers would once again take a look to see if it was a viable option for the center.
Several people said the West End has nine pools they can use, and that they wouldn’t be interested in using the community center in Grand Marais. One women pressed Hakes by repeatedly asking what would happen if the community center were built and expenditures didn’t meet revenues.
“We would have to spend less somewhere else,” said Hakes.
“Is it possible that you would have to raise taxes?” she asked.
“There is some risk in any project, but we want to keep that risk minimal,” said Hakes.
The young lady responded that she was a single parent and couldn’t afford to pay one more dime in taxes.
Alicia Buckman said that West End folks would have little use for the community center, especially in light of current high gas prices. Hakes responded that it might be possible to have the Arrowhead Transit bus transport kids and families to the pool.
When Hakes shared the operating costs of community centers in Becker, Minnesota (44,000 feet) $842,000; Crosby Ironton (55,000 feet) $55,000; Perham (66,000 feet), $76,000; and Redwood Falls (80,000 feet), $842,000 per year; she admitted, “Our (projected) operating costs are on the high side.”
One of the ways other centers cut expenses was to have part-time staff or, in the case of Crosby-Ironton, “They don’t have lifeguards. We decided we weren’t going to do that.”
When asked if anything had been considered for cuts, Hakes said one model taking out the wellness center and gymnasium cut the cost to $8 million, and operating costs fell $25,000 to $30,000 per year, but, “after we took one thing away, six other things had to tweaked.”
Sam Parker said that the school had been overbuilt, “It’s a huge thing. How can you ask people to pay for another building? Have you looked at the demographics?”
“Historically Cook County has grown faster than other counties,” said Hakes. “But because we have such a low population it doesn’t take much of an increase for that to happen,” she added.
Kyle Nelson said, “Whoever makes the decisions on hiring, hire as many local contractors as possible.”
But Nelson was told that because these would be pubic contracts, anyone could bid on them. ORB, however, will break the contracts into small units and that should allow smaller contractors to bid on smaller jobs.
Don Hammer asked, “Are you going to partner with local non-profits? Local artists producing local art could make this building pop.”
Hakes thought that was a great idea and it will be explored further.
Neil Hansen said he thought the process was being pushed. “Your timeline is moving ahead kind of fast,” said Hansen. He also said he couldn’t ever see using the building.
Plans are to break ground in the fall and build through the winter.
Hakes said until they complete a final design plan for the building, no time line was firmly set.
Further meetings with the public will be held and Hakes said input would be taken seriously in final decision-making.
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