It’s me, I’m the problem

To the Editor:

I attended the Fairmont City Council meeting on Sept. 23. The Fairmont Area Community Center Foundation gave an update on the Community Center (CC) progress. They were projecting a very positive attitude about the progress over the 8 years since the vote on the .5 percent tax increase. Then they described why the progress has been going so slowly. It was due to the citizens that are not on board with this proposed CC. That group, per John Kasper, has been causing delays and thus increases to the cost of the project. Toward the end of his presentation, John said there were four roads that they could go down going forward. He then said the FACCF was “all in” going forward.

I took the opportunity to speak since it was an open hearing. I informed the council that I was privileged to have attended the first CC meetings to get a rough design of the building. The architect asked the 5 groups attending (Mayo, school, Hockey, CC, and City) if they wanted an oversized door into the field house. He explained another CC in SW Minnesota had one and this allowed for large farm equipment to drive in for an agricultural show. This discussion did not go anywhere. A few meetings later the architect again asked about this large door; possibly given our history and pride of being an agriculture community. There was silence. Over the course of the meetings, a daycare space was also discussed. The YMCA (Y) was adamant that they only wanted “child watch” programming. The Y was also adamant that they have a good size fitness space.

If you are a citizen that is in need of day care or you are in the agricultural industry, please send your questions and requests to the city council, especially Randy Lubenow, Britney Kawecki and Jay Maynard, as they seem to be okay with this proposed CC that misses the mark on what our community needs.

So, yeah, as Taylor Swift sings, “It’s me, I’m the problem, hi, it’s me.” I will continue to speak out against the proposed CC as I do not see the FACCF designing a CC that will serve the wants and needs of Fairmont.

Terry Riggs

Fairmont