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Readers’ Views

Years of hard work now erased

To the Editor:

In a matter of minutes, COUNCILORS MILLER, HASEK & PETERS erase YEARS of HARD work, COMMUNITY SUPPORT and THE CITY’S commitment to a new community center.

For years, the Fairmont community has desired, discussed, and made plans for a new community center. The latest effort included the components required to finally make it happen: a City commitment of $14 million, private donations totaling $6 million, the YMCA as an operating partner, a shared goal for a new ice arena, hired experts to assist with applying for state and federal funds, and a supportive community behind the project. To add to this, at a recent City workshop, the Fairmont Area Community Center (FACC) Foundation laid out multiple options to fill the funding gap between budgeted project costs and actual design costs for the YMCA community center.

Unfortunately, the experts, the partnerships, and the work done has been unilaterally dismissed by Councilors Miller, Hasek and Peters, and path toward a new YMCA Community Center has been terminated. This decision showed Council had no intentions of allowing FACC to finish the job the city entered into an agreement with them to do.

On Nov. 28, 2022, the motion was passed to walk away from two prior city resolutions in support of a YMCA run community center. In doing so, the council voted to not only walk away from a new Fairmont Area Community Center, but also millions of dollars in private donations. This action has damaged the likelihood that private donors will want to trust or partner with the City again on future projects.

Furthermore, it is deeply concerning that Council instead voted to support a SMEC-based community center that has had zero due diligence done. There are no costs associated with retrofitting the SMEC building, there is no operating partner identified, no plans for programming that supports the entire community, and therefore, no plans for sustainable operations.

It is also important to emphasize that the Krahmer Family, Rosen Family, and other donors do not support a SMEC-based community center and are not planning on donating any funds to that effort. And any state bonding rumored to be available for the project, or any community center project, has been confirmed not to be a viable option.

This new resolution is a decision by the City with deep consequences that it would appear Council has chosen to ignore or simply did not consider.

Regrettably for this community, it is apparent the City does not have elected officials who share the vision for community development and who lack a willingness to stand up and invest in our community’s most pressing issues: economic growth, improved community health, and youth development.

John Kasper, Fred Krahmer, Karin Rosen, John Edman and Amy Long

FACC Foundation Board

of Directors

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