by Frank Lee
operations@thenewsleaders.com
To extend the lease or not extend the lease regarding Colts Academy? That was the question before the St. Joseph City Council that would affect plans for a community center.
The St. Cloud Area School District is seeking a lease extension that would allow the district to keep early-childhood programs at Colts Academy in St. Joseph.
“I’d say no,” said council member Bob Loso to the other council members during the Oct. 3 meeting. “I don’t want to extend this agreement out any further.”
The city and the school district entered into a purchase and lease agreement for the property at 124 First Ave. SE that allowed ISD 742 to remain in the facility through July 1.
“Two years ago this November we bought this property, and one of the kickers of that was for a community center,” Loso said at the meeting and the year-long extension request.
The St. Cloud Area School District hopes an extension will allow the completion of the construction of a new building for early-childhood programs on the Discovery School site.
“So if you extend this lease, that moves it out another two years before the city takes over the property, and that (will) make it four years (since it was purchased),” Loso said.
The St. Cloud Area School District’s lease at Colts Academy in St. Joseph ends in July, and the district hopes to have its new early-childhood building completed in 2018.
“I don’t think the citizens of this city were anticipating a community center to take that long,” Loso said. “They have waited two years already. I don’t think two more (years) the city should wait.”
The St. Cloud Area School District, according to city officials, does not pay the city a monthly rent for the Colts Academy facility, which St. Joseph plans to turn into a community center once the district is done with it.
Last month, the council approved of having Hagemeister and Mack Architects Inc. of St. Cloud create designs for the proposed community center in St. Joseph.
“We have HMA drawing up drawings right now, doing needs analysis and space analysis (and more) and I think at this point and time, the city should move forward and not extend this lease . . . so we can get the community center up and running,” Loso said. “That’s my opinion on that.”
Loso was the lone dissenting voice when it was finally put to a vote at the Oct. 3 meeting whether or not to extend the lease agreement with St. Cloud Area School District.
“It’s been too long,” Loso said after the vote about the delayed community center, which led into a discussion by the council about possible uses and programming at the proposed site.
Council member Dale Wick said after the vote, “Part of that is on us because we haven’t done the programming part,” to which Loso agreed.
Funding for the new Early Childhood Center was part of the referendum posed to voters in ISD 742, but the 2015 referendum failed, so the St. Cloud Area School District had expressed the desire to remain at Colts Academy.
“I don’t know how much more we can encourage that,” said Mayor Rick Schultz about the desire for the St. Cloud Area School District to relocate its early-childhood programs to a new building. “We talked about that for weeks.”
At the end of the meeting, a motion was made by Wick that was approved by the entire city council, with the exception of Loso, to discuss potential uses of Colts Academy as a community center.
