Trending
Sitting in the Fairmont City Council work sessions last week, I had feelings of Deja Vu. Haven't we been here before? Are we not repeating conversations that have already taken place?
With the roughly $12 million in Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) that council has available, it's looking to spend about $10 million on an all seasons rec center.
It was first referred to as a community building and then settled on as all seasons rec center. It was largely agreed upon not to call it a community center as there are sore feelings associated with that exact phrase.
Call it what you want, but that doesn't change the fact that council is now, again, in pursuit of a community center, albeit on a much smaller scale.
As it's in the very early stages, there's still a lot to decide including where it will be, how big it will be, what it will all include, who's going to be involved in it and who it will be for.
This last one should seem obvious. It should be for everyone as it's going to be built with everyone's money.
But, will everyone be able to afford to use it?
Council has not yet discussed whether or not community members will need to pay to use it. Assuming they will, how much will it be and will there be options for low income families and seniors? Both of which we have many of in this community.
With the last community center project, a previous council had agreed to put LOST funds toward the community center project, contingent upon private fundraising efforts by the Fairmont Area Community Center Foundation and the YMCA operating the community center.
In 2022 the Foundation did enter into an operating agreement with the YMCA and most YMCA locations do offer a sliding fee scale based on total gross household income, along with other discounts for students, veterans, seniors, etc.
Having the YMCA operate this doesn't seem like it will be an option anymore but if the majority of the council's claim is to use the money on something for all citizens, we need to make sure that all citizens are going to be able to use it and afford it.
It's also unclear whether the all seasons rec center will be able to offer a child watch program or other programming that would have been offered by the YMCA.
The all seasons rec center also needs to have amenities that most citizens want and will use. So far, council has indicated that an indoor pool will not be part of the project. Yes, pools are more expensive, but an indoor pool is something that Fairmont, or even all of Martin County, does not have. What the all seasons rec center is currently looking to include is a walking track and some multi-use courts, both of which exist at Fairmont's two gyms. Both gyms also in the last year made improvements to their facilities, using their own funds to replace or add equipment and amenities.
As for the rest of the questions that need to be addressed such as who will be involved and what it will include, the discussion invokes feelings of Deja Vu because there was a city-established Community Center Advisory Board made up of members from hockey, the Foundation, the school district, the city and the public that met monthly over 2021, 2022 and 2023 to discuss these things.
And they were discussed at length. There are at least 81 Sentinel articles from 2016 up until 2025 that are focused on the community center project and most of them are from city council meetings or advisory board meetings. There were no doubt other meetings held, not to mention the hours of work that individuals and past contractors put in on the project.
Council first talked about using some of that past information and those past plans discussed to use on this project and then indicated that it might not need it, as it's now going after a new project.
However, I can't help but think about the 10 or so years that was spent discussing and working on the past community center project, which many people were invested in and working on, and wonder how long it will take this new project to come to fruition.
I, for one, am tired of the negativity and naysayers in this community and I don't want to say that this project is impossible. But I do think it's worth thinking about more and reconsidering whether this is what's best to spend the LOST funds on. We've already been here. The project was teed up, plans were in place, donors were on board, nearly all of the money was raised.
While this project could pan out, is it worth spending so much time and nearly all of the LOST funds on coming up with all of the design plans for a scaled back project, just to feel like we have something sort of resembling a community center? Maybe it's time to put those dreams to bed and think about something new that could be added to the community, for the community.