FAIRMONT– The Community Center Advisory Board met on Wednesday to briefly discuss financing, fundraising and contracts. New Board Member, James Draper, was not present, nor was school liaison, Mat Mahoney.

The board also elected new officers during Wednesday’s meeting. Board Member Mike Edman made a motion to have Brandon Edmundson serve as chair for another year. Board Member Lisa Kuhl, who represents the Fairmont Hockey Association, seconded the motion. Edman made a motion to have Draper serve as vice chair, which Kuhl seconded.

In other business, the board reviewed architect JLG’s contract and its proposal with moving forward with the YMCA design, the ice design and the design for mechanicals and upgrades for ice at the existing facility. The contract was previously approved by the Fairmont City Council.

“Their contract amendment actually hit my inbox this morning so we’ll keep that contract amendment moving. I’m hoping to put it on the agenda (city council) for the 13th,” said City Administrator, Cathy Reynolds.

She added that there’s a meeting set up with JLG and Kraus-Anderson, the construction company on the project, for next week, to talk about next steps and timelines.

Edmundson said he wanted to clarify some things that have recently transpired regarding the Martin County Arena. He asked whether the work on that has come back at $1.9 million.

Reynolds said they’re still working with estimates as design work isn’t done yet, but it’s expected that construction of mechanicals will be $1.3 million and $130,000 for the design. She said the construction cost includes additional work needed in the arena for the new system, like electrical work to come into compliance with codes.

“At this point the council has approved $850,000 from the Gomsrud project to go toward this roughly $1.5 million (project) and anything over that would be coming off of the $14 million (raised in local option sales tax)?” Edmundson asked.

He was referring to decisions the Fairmont City Council made at the Feb. 27 meeting.

Reynolds said the new ice arena design is roughly $500,000 and the mechanic system is $1.3 million for construction and $130,000 for design, which is being funded from a portion of the Gomsrud Park improvement funds with the rest coming out of the $14 million raised in local option sales tax which was previously earmarked for a community center.

“Once we get funding in from an additional local option sales tax, state bonding, or anything like that, we can move funds back around but we can’t move forward with the mechanical system if we don’t have funding for it,” Reynolds said.

Edmundson asked whether JLG has to do a full ice sheet design before there’s a vote on an additional local option sales tax. Reynolds said the design will help support the state bonding package.

Edman said, “so council wants to spend half a million to support a state bonding request of $6 million?”

Reynolds clarified that the current state bonding request is for $10 million.

Edmundson addressed a question to council liaisons, Jay Maynard and Britney Kawecki. He asked if the council didn’t go for state bonding, but did go for another sales tax, whether it would wait on spending the half a million (for ice arena design work) until the additional sales tax was approved.

“Is the only reason we’re spending the $500,000 now, is to enable us to go for state bonding?” Edmundson asked.

Reynolds said that it will support the state bonding package, which is why the design work on the arena is being done.

“We have a state bonding package in now… it’s really getting us phased and ready for the 2024 bonding bill,” Reynolds said.

Edmundson said from what he understands, state bonding seems worth pursuing, but quite a long shot. He said he wasn’t aware it would cost so much to support.

“If state bonding fails and the sales tax fails, we don’t have a funding source for the ice arena. That seems like a lot to spend on something that might not happen,” Edmundson said.

Kawecki said she is baffled that they’re moving forward with ice arena expenses and said she felt like the council was putting a lot of money in going toward bonding without any guarantees.

“I have the same concerns that you do,” Kawecki said.

Edman said in his opinion, making anything contingent on having state bonding secured was unwise. He said if sales tax passes, that’s great, but if not, he agreed with Edmundson that they would be without funding for the arena work.

Moving to the topic of finance, Reynolds said that both the bonding bill and local option sales tax have been introduced and that lobbyists are working on them. She said that there are 38 requests from cities and counties for local option sales tax at the legislative level this year so they’re being screened before seeing what will go on to the deciding committee.

Edman asked whether local option sales tax will be a 2023 ballot question or 2024 question.

Reynolds said that local option sales tax is required to go to a general election, not a special election, and that the city of Fairmont doesn’t have a general election this year. However, this November is considered a general election month even though Fairmont doesn’t have one so if the local option sales tax is passed at the legislative level, it could go to the public for a vote this year.

Reynolds also said that federal congressional funding request is in.

“On the city side we had to put all that together, so we did put in a funding request for the community center,” Reynolds said.

Edmundson asked how much the city asked for and Reynolds said $15 or $20 million.

“Any funds would be welcome so we did hurry up and put that together,” Reynolds said.

At 5 p.m. on March 21 in council chambers, there will be a joint work session between the Fairmont City Council, Community Center Advisory Board, Fairmont Area Community Center Foundation and Fairmont Hockey Association.

The advisory board will have its next meeting on April 12.