City Council receives Community Center update
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Members of the Community Center fund-raising committee were on hand Monday night to provide an update during City Council’s regular monthly meeting.
“If the project is to be successful, we have to work together. We need to make sure you’re in the loop,” said member Kevin Sipe.
Committee member Mike Chasse recalled how important the Rec Center was to him as a child and how one of his first jobs was working with youth at the facility.
“It really shaped me as a man as I grew up. It’s super important as a community to provide not just for our kids but seniors and everyone else. I’m excited to be working with this group of individuals,” said Chasse.
Steve Richard, co-chair of the capital campaign, said he really appreciates the city’s support.
“We’ve gone from a core committee to a campaign committee. We’ve done a lot of telephone conversations with the consultant, to reduce expenses. We’re on our way to a successful campaign,” said Richard. “Everything we do, we want to involve the community — we want families, the elderly, everyone. We want everyone involved.”
He said plans are to make regular visits to City Council meetings to provide updates to keep everyone informed.
“We’re all in this together,” Richard said.
Richard noted that while councilors approved money for a fund-raising consultant, more money would be necessary to cover such things as advertisements of scheduled meetings, brochures and other items.
Scott Norton, another member of the committee, said he and now his son have used the current facility but that it’s “worn out.”
“We need to replace it. This is a commitment the city has made to this project. Your ongoing support is what we’re looking for tonight,” said Norton. “These are tough times and cutbacks are necessary. But if we can’t do it now, when? We want it now. This group of individuals want to make this happen.”
Sipe noted that “You have to spend money to make money.”
“We need money, as Steve said, for mailings, ads. We’re asking council for financial support to help us get started in raising funds,” said Sipe.
City Manager Jim Bennett said the initial amount councilors approved for a consultant, $25,000, is far below the bids received.
“We went out to bid on proposals for consultants. The prices came in very high. A decision was made by the committee to try out a vendor. It’ll buy us about four or five months of that service. Bids were clearly upward of $150,000 or more in order to raise $3.5 million,” said Bennett. “These men (the committee) aren’t exactly the type to throw money out the window.”
Bennett said councilors had two things to consider as summer approaches. The first would be to follow the proper guidelines to make sure documentation is in place so that “any moneys lent to ourselves (the city) can be repaid to ourselves” following IRS codes.
Bennett also indicated there is a good chance the city could qualify for funding for downtown riverfront development, which would include the Community Center project.
“There’s some firm belief out there that funding will be available for downtown riverfront development; $398,000 (from the city) would be needed for additional work necessary to meet the criteria of a shovel-ready project,” said Bennett. The $398,000 would help secure upward of $1.5 million in bond money, should the legislature and governor approve nearly $25 million in funds for such development projects, said Bennett.
Councilor Dick Engels noted that in capital campaigns he’s been involved with before, “the silent part kicks off first.”
Bennett said it “could potentially be upward of $600,000 to $650,000 to get the project bid-ready and to fully fund what the committee needs for the campaign.”
“I think we could do the campaign in stages,” said the city manager.
Richard said the actual kickoff for the fund-raising campaign is slated for early August.
“The consultant thinks that’s a little quick but we think that’s what we want to do,” Richard said.
Councilor Bruce Sargent inquired about naming rights, with Sipe noting he hoped that would be an attraction for people looking to donate.
Engels said although voters approved moving forward with the idea, money would be raised before the city made an investment, “I think the city needs to get behind to move it forward.”
Bennett said there was a two-year window for the “$25 million pool” and that councilors have a minimum of four months to get documents ready to be eligible for those funds.
“We need to move to get bid docs ready for November,” he said. “In order to take any designated funds necessary, we have to declare ahead of time to claim those funds.”
Bennett said it would be a matter of “borrowing from yourself” (taking money from the city’s general fund).
Sargent said given the repairs needed at both the indoor and outdoor pools, a pool should be incorporated into the new facility.
“I think we should put a couple million into this” for a pool, said Sargent.
Sipe agreed, adding that plans include expansion options.
Sargent doubted that would happen however.
“There won’t be any expanding. There’ll never be an add-on. We’ll be lucky to get ball fields down there. If we’re financing for 40 years — we’re talking peanuts as far as I’m concerned. We may as well go for $9 million,” said Sargent.
“If the council wants to go that way, I think you’d find a lot of support,” said Sipe.
Bennett said city officials “ran the numbers and it would be about $3.5 million to add a pool.”
“If we’re going to do this, we should do it right,” said Sargent.
Bennett said staff could “address internally,” to provide preliminary figures on what adding a pool would cost.
Councilor Pete Hallowell said he’d be in favor of “giving them money for ads, etc. but we should table the $398,000,” since councilors don’t know what the school budget will be.
“They have enough money for a couple months,” said Bennett.
Councilors voted to table discussion on the $398,000 request, with plans to revisit the matter at their June 3 meeting.
