by Dave DeMars
About 30 community residents accepted the invitation of members of the St. Joseph Community Center Planning Group April 25 to learn more about plans for the new community center, examining drawings and asking questions of team members that included St. Joseph City Administrator Judy Weyrens, Mayor Rick Schultz and council member Dale Wick.
In his post-meeting question-answer session, Schultz said the idea has grown during the past few years, and now there is a finance committee exploring ways to get the financing. According to Schultz, there are many entities in the city on board with the idea and willing to help in the fundraising.
The idea of establishing a St. Joseph Community Center can trace its roots back nearly 50 years, when the notion was suggested to the city council and the city planning commission. While always a popular idea, location, planning, financing and various other city needs and roadblocks kept sidetracking the idea. Now it seems the idea may have a new life and enthusiasm, but there is much that needs to happen before solid plans can be laid.
“In the meantime, we are just going to move forward with the estimates and feedback we (get) tonight,” Schultz said. “And really, thank you for coming. Every time we get together, we get a few new ideas we want to incorporate as best we can. As has been said, this is still all conceptual, but we are getting closer and closer all the time. ”
Questions from the audience were largely concerned with finances and where in the process the planning team is now. Schultz said several times in terms of architecture, the plans are getting very close. Some rough architectural plans were laid out for audience members to examine. Financing seemed to be the big hurdle.
“What will the committee be able to bring (to the financing), and how will they bring it? What can the half-cent sales tax bring, and offset that with?” Schultz asked. “And what does that mean on final space and remodeling costs and all that? We are close; we are pushing the envelope on getting it done faster rather than later.”
One audience member expressed his confusion about the generality.
“We really don’t have any idea as to what is meant by the term close. I have no clue what the numbers are and what is coming out of the taxpayers for revenue,” said the audience member. “Has there been any numbers worked out that anybody can look at? We’re supposed to say we really like this, but we can’t really go ahead and say it sounds pretty good if we are going to have to go ahead and pay seven-eighths of it, which amounts to $11 million out of taxpayers’ money.”
The audience member continued, adding that with water bills and sewer bills, and the rising cost in nearly every facet of living going up, it would be extremely hard for senior citizens age 60 and older to afford to live in the city. To add additional costs onto the tax bill for a community center did not make sense to him.
“We need to start paying off some stuff before we start putting more of that maintenance on the tax base,” he said.
Schultz answered, saying at this point the committee is not ready to say yea or nay to the proposal. Until there is a solid financial plan and ways to meet the cost, there is no commitment to building. But he emphasized again that architecturally, the plans are pretty close to finished.
Asked by another audience member who was going to have the last word on whether to go ahead and build, Schultz said the city council would make that decision.
“The city council will say yea or nay,” Schultz said. “But up to this point it’s been a group of residents (who) have gone through most of this stuff.”
Schultz went on to say the city council will explore many ways to pay for the center, including going to the state legislature for bonding money. More meetings are scheduled to figure out more funding and to consider how some ideas put forth could be incorporated.
It was also pointed out that while council owns the old Kennedy School, it has lease obligations until July 1, 2018. That prevents any kind of remodeling or updating until after that date. The lease with Little Saints Daycare brings in about $50,000 per year.
Follow up
In a follow-up interview with administrator Judy Weyrens, the St. Joseph Newsleader was able to learn some additional information. Weyrens explained what was put forth on April 25 was the result of a group of about a dozen residents working with a report from a consultant hired by the city to formulate some sort of plan incorporating as many ideas as possible into the plan. Murray Mack of HMA Architects was hired to do the conceptual drawings presented at the community meeting.
One of the things Weyrens mentioned was the difficulty on settling upon exactly what is needed or wanted in the community center. Some residents have expressed they want gym space, others want a social area to play cards, read books or interact in other social ways. Some people want to have a library. Trying to satisfy these various wants is the difficulty faced by the planners.
“Everybody has a different idea,” Weyrens said.
Among some of the ideas presented is to create a banquet area with space for reunions and weddings. Another idea is to bring the historical society into a portion of the building and also create a space for the local food shelf. Other space would be created for small group meetings and activities.
When it came to the gym areas, Weyrens said there were requests for walking areas, climbing walls and other exercise areas. The question is whether it is best to build two or three gym areas with elevated walking and running areas or to build them at grade. That brings into question how much land space would be used and the cost of preparation and the materials used.
“It is the most economical thing to do a two-story (gymnasium). The only thing on the upper level would be the walking track,” Weyrens explained.
Weyrens also repeated the statement that conceptually, the building is pretty far along toward being built, but the sticky part of building, as in most small-government building, is finding the financing to complete the job. She said costs could run from $8 to $12 million depending on what kinds of things will go into the building.
“We know some sales tax (the half-cent sales tax authorized by the area cities and the state) can be used for it, maybe a campaign for donations like the YMCA, and maybe looking at partnerships and donations to offset the cost,” Weyrens said. “The financial piece is the biggest piece that needs to be addressed right now.”
Weyrens observed in terms of calls from the public, there really haven’t been too many lately. After the government center was finished, the city offices received calls because people were expecting the community center to be addressed.
“They are still expecting that,” she said.