FAIRMONT– A joint work session between a number of groups involved with the proposed community center in Fairmont met on Tuesday inside council chambers at City Hall. The groups involved included the Fairmont City Council, Community Center Advisory Board, Fairmont Area Community Center Foundation, Fairmont Hockey Association and YMCA. The topic of the work session was discussing the timeline and the pro formas of the YMCA and Fairmont Hockey Association.

The meeting began with a presentation from Chad Pike with Kraus Anderson, the construction company planned for the project, who presented the projected timeline.

Part of the information included in the timeline was financial. Pike had mapped out the potential of a new market tax credit as well as the state bonding process. The Foundation’s and hockey association’s fundraising timeline was also included.

The state’s approval on a second local option sales tax was part of the timeline, a part that Pike said was critical. He said that the decision there will kick-off the ice arena options as money raised in a potential second round of local option sales tax would fund it.

Included in the timeline were the tentative dates of several other joint work sessions, with topics on the operating agreement and financing, which will continue to take place on the third Tuesday of the month.

City Administrator Cathy Reynolds said that whether or not the city receives state bonding for the project would dictate when the project starts.

“We’ve got 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions to apply for state bonding. May of 2023 we’ll know if we get in on the 2023 bonding bill and by May 2024 we should know if we’re getting in on the 2024 bonding bill if we need to go for that one,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds said that in order for the architect to continue to work on the schematic design, a small team is needed to provide decision making abilities.

“We’re looking for three people on the YMCA phase of the project and a couple of people on the ice phase of the project to be involved with the schematic design,” Reynolds said.

Pike said that a pre-design report also needs to be delivered to the state as part of the bonding request.

“That will go hand-in-hand with the schematic design,” Pike said

While no one had many questions about the project timeline, a great number were asked surrounding the pro formas.

Council Member Michele Miller had several questions for the YMCA. She said she has talked to several people in the community who are under the impression that, with a membership, programs at the YMCA would be free.

Dennis Dieser, retired CEO of the Albert Lea YMCA and strategic consultant with State Alliance, said that membership includes many things, including classes and programs, whereas non-members would pay those fees. However, he said there are fees for some specialized programs.

“Are you saying that there’s a perception that people pay absolutely nothing?” asked Foundation member, John Kasper.

Miller said that some people believe that, outside of a scholarship, having a membership means that programs within the YMCA are free.

Chris Stenberg, Director of Alliance Services MN, said, “A traditional Y membership includes land classes, access to the pools, access to all of the spaces but when it comes to childcare and those additional programs…”

“Can you elaborate on childcare? One of the needs that Fairmont has is daytime childcare. Is that going to be included in this?” asked Miller.

Dieser said they’ve had multiple conversations with the school district and that at this point they’re not looking at doing preschool-aged care. He also said they’re not looking to compete with what’s already in the community.

“Everything we’re doing right now is very conservative… these are models that work with facilities that are already there. We’re still at a point (here) where’s there’s no facility and really no design,” Dieser said.

He said right now they’re working with the school district and other childcare centers in town to determine what the needs are.

Miller said rather than include space for a fitness center in the community center, which Fairmont already has several of, they should look at including space for childcare as that’s currently a need in the community.

Brandon Edmundson, a member of the advisory board, asked whether an existing space in the community could be used for a daycare and if the YMCA could help facilitate it.

“Those are conversations that we’ve already been having but it’s too early to put any formality to it,” Dieser said.

Council Member Jay Maynard said that while he realizes it’s early on and there’s not a definite design, the question of daycare is important from a pro forma standpoint because it represents revenue.

“I and the rest of council have all been given numbers on revenue from daycares at various Ys around Minnesota. But the folks providing those didn’t provide any information on cost,” Maynard said.

He said he didn’t know if adding space for daycare at the expense of some of the fitness square footage was a good idea.

Fred Krahmer, a member of the Foundation, (which has contracted with the Y) said they were asked to provide a pro forma based on the building that’s been designed and that’s what they did.

“If the design process, as you spec it out, begins to include new spaces, probably causing additional costs, likely not shrinking it, we need to revisit how those costs are covered,” Krahmer said.

He added that the Foundation would love to have more input on the design but acknowledged that the clock is ticking on the timeline for a design and consequently potential state funding.

Reynolds said that now is the time to ask for a daycare if that’s what’s desired, as they are past the concept design process. She said that in conversation between multiple groups during that phase it was said that only a child watch space, not daycare, was to be included.

“If we want daycare, right now is when we need to make that call because that’s going to change the concept design and the entire schematic design,” Reynolds said.

Amy Long, a member of the Foundation, said she’s been in meetings with both the YMCA and Shea Ripley, director of Building Blocks Learning Center and Child Watch, and Deb Barnes, Administrator of Lakeview Methodist Health Care Center (which Building Blocks is housed in) and that the later two have a desire and interest to serve before-school age children.

“That’s why that was never interjected into the schematic design. I think we all agree that daycare is a priority in the community… my recommendation would be… we get a small group to just talk about the daycare needs and whether we’re going to entertain putting an actual facility into the building,” Long said.

Council Member Britney Kawecki said she thinks that for the community center project to change its direction now would be a big mistake and that she thought the child watch included in the current blueprints would be sufficient.

Maynard questioned whether the council and other parties would “shoot themselves in the foot” later down the line for not adding a space for daycare in the community center facility.

Edmundson, who said he also sits on the board at Lakeview, spoke about the money Lakeview spent during its construction project to include space for a new, expanded daycare center. The space requires nearly $1 million or more in funding to complete.

“I struggle here to see why we would start over and build a brand new daycare in the YMCA and spend our money there when the community has one that is half-built, literally waiting for an operator to be there and finish it out,” Edmundson said.

Miller said that the community center is supposed to be for the full community so it makes sense to have a daycare within it. She said that in the event that Lakeview can’t finish its daycare center, the community center would then have one to fill the need.

Switching gears, Miller asked where both the Foundation and Hockey are at in their fundraising efforts.

Kasper said the Foundation has launched several fundraising campaigns and that they’ve received a number of large donations and pledges. Ian Bents, a representative of the hockey association, said that they are continuing to work on fundraising within the association.

Kawecki poised some questions to representatives of the Fairmont Hockey Association about its pro forma.

“When I look at the hockey pro forma… there’s a lot of information on here but there’s no benchmark data… I was hoping that the hockey association would be able to provide information by looking at other facilities to provide how you came up with these numbers,” Kawecki said.

She asked how much the capital improvement budget is. Bents noted that the association’s pro forma is not as long as the YMCA’s, but said that they have 40 years of history of performance.

“There’s numbers related to financials that have been extrapolated out to reflect from the current situation to 10 months of ice operations,” Bents said.

“Basically you’re taking what you guys did for six months… and made it into a ten month facility?” Kawecki asked.

Bents said they would plan to have ice for 10 months with a new facility with additional opportunities for rentals and other programs outside of the six month season.

Kawecki said that if the city is going to do a half-cent sales tax and give the money raised to the hockey association, she would expect them to have it open for the community to use it when it wants to. She questioned information about employee expenses that was included in the pro forma.

Bents said that groups already come in to use the facility outside of practice and games in the evenings and on weekends.

“A lot of schools come in and use the ice for class rewards and recognitions. The arena doesn’t charge the schools to use it,” Bents said.

He said there’s a full-time rink manager and that someone will always be there as there are a number of part-time individuals. Bents said other people are available on a volunteer-basis as the hours are required through the association.

“To have a $24 million facility connected to a YMCA, I don’t know that counting on volunteers to operate programs and man the front door… that’s going to take programming,” Kawecki said.

She said she felt like what the association presented was more of a summary and less of a pro forma.

Bents said that Fairmont Hockey Association is not a startup, nor is it something new being brought to the community. He also pointed out that the project is not about hockey, but ice. He said that there are multiple opportunities for additional revenue.

“Overall this thing has massive opportunity,” Bents said.

Maynard said that he was satisfied with the hockey association’s pro forma.

“I’ll trust 40 years of experience over a lot of other things,” Maynard said.

Edmundson commented on both pro formas and noted that they’re essentially just estimates. Both organizations have long and successful histories and Edmundson said that beneficial information was shared from both parties.

Reynolds said that the pro forms are available for the public to view on the city’s website at fairmont.org.

The next joint work session will take place at 5 p.m. on April 18.