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FAIRMONT--The Citizens 4 A Strong Fairmont (C4ASF) group hosted an informational meeting at the Fairmont Opera House on Tuesday evening to go over its stance against the proposed community center and share its alternative plan.
About 70 people, including city councilors, business owners and other community members of varying ages were in attendance at the meeting which was planned to span two hours.
Richard Bradley, who heads C4ASF, opened the meeting. Along with Richard, his wife Diana Bradley and Mark Ossenfort, a taxpayer and property owner in Fairmont also presented information. Richard shared that Gemini Studios was making a recording of the presentation.
"We've never been against bringing a community center to Fairmont. We honestly believe that the rightly-sized facility with the amenities that meet our needs and at a price that we can afford and will be sustainable in the long run will be a wonderful benefit for our town," Richard said.
However he said that the group is largely against the current plans for the proposed community center.
Richard provided some basic background on C4ASF, which he said is an informal group of concerned tax paying citizens looking for affordable, sustainable and long-term solutions for the community.
A brief amount of history on the city of Fairmont as it relates to a community center was provided via a slideshow. This included the decline of the population. Richard said that the decline of population has increased the tax stress on the remaining taxpayers and businesses.
"We believe that it's necessary that we have to concentrate on rebuilding our wealth base and the first thing that we believe is necessary is to bring manufacturing jobs with higher wages," Richard said.
He also said the group wants to focus on rebuilding recreational strengths like lakes, parks and trails, as well as eliminating roadblocks to housing and development.
"Some people claim that it (a community center) will solve all of the problems we face today. For 40 years, before 2016, the citizens of Fairmont rejected the idea to bring a community center to town... the citizens recognized it wasn't needed because the town already had many activities and amenities," Richard said.
He went back several years and spoke about the ideas survey that was given to residents and showed more than 50 percent were in favor of a community center, which he questioned. Using a survey as an aid for setting public taxing policy was also brought up as a concern.
The use of local option sales tax and the wording of it on the ballot question back in 2016 was also indicated as an issue.
"The question read, 'for the purpose of funding recreational amenities, trails and/or a community center,'" Richard said.
And then in 2019, Richard said the city council passed another resolution, authorizing the distribution of $14 million, of the $15 million raised, to the construction of a community center.
Moving to other matters, Diana spoke to the financing plan.
"One of the challenges we have with the proposed community center project is that it's constantly, constantly, constantly changing. As a city, we are seven years in a project and we still don't have a design...we also do not have the final proposal for the financing plan," Diana said.
She first discussed the 2019 financing plan, which she noted was simpler and involved land donated by Mayo Clinic Health System, $14 million from local option sales tax and $6 million from the Fairmont Area Community Center Foundation.
"The result is very simple, too. One owner, $20 million building, a $225,000 land asset. The owner is the city on behalf of the taxpayers," Diana said.
Then she shared what the 2022 plan looked like, when the project was divided into two phases and the land was donated to the Foundation, with the Foundation retaining ownership of the land.
Diana walked through how all of the different funding sources, including taxpayer dollars, flow through the project as it's currently proposed in the financing plan. She expressed concerns with how many times the money moves through the structure, which she said is six times
Throughout the course of the meeting Richard addressed some myths. He said one of them is the claim that there's nothing for children to do in Fairmont. He shared a list of organizations that provide programming, as well as events that are held locally.
He said two other myths are that a community center will entice businesses to come to Fairmont and that it will bring more people to Fairmont.
Richard also shared numbers concerning distant and not-so-distant infrastructure needs and the impact they will have on taxpayers. Figures on road and sewer needs were shared, as well as things like the plan to construct a new law enforcement center and the conversation about the need for a new fire station.
The impact on local non-profits was also touched on. Richard shared concerns about the founder's fund and scholarships that will be available to the YMCA, along with the endowment fund.
"How big is the pie in this town that money can be drawn in for other organizations," Richard asked.
Finally, Richard said the C4ASF has been asked what it would do differently with the money raised in local option sales tax that the city is putting toward the community center.
He said it would suggest $2 million for lake water quality, $3 million for trails and parks, including upgrades to Gomsrud Park. Richard also spoke about the possibility of updating the Southern Minnesota Educational Campus (SMEC) building to be used as a community center and shared some plans the group has for that.
After Richard's presentation, Ossenfort spoke about a separate group, Fairmont Taxpayers Coalition for Government Transparency (FTCGT), which was created to promote transparency and the use of public tax revenue and assets by the city of Fairmont.
Ossenfort's presentation touched on some of the many various surveys and studies that have been done and how the design of the facility has changed.
Several clips from past joint work sessions between the Fairmont City Council, YMCA, Foundation and other groups were also shown and Ossenfort questioned what's been said publicly and what's actually been done.
A main concern stressed by him was the impact a community center will have on existing businesses in Fairmont, specifically fitness centers.
After more than an hour and a half of information being provided, a question and answer portion was opened up.
Some of the questions asked were whether C4ASF had plans for child care and whether the city of Fairmont would be asking the county for funding help in the future.