by Dennis Dalman
Sartell resident Joe Perkse is upset about the non-replacement of an outdoor skating rink at the new Scheels Athletic Complex, and it is an issue, he warned, that “will not go away.”
Perske, a Stearns County commissioner, is a former Sartell city council member and former Sartell mayor. At the June 28 council meeting, he shared his concerns during the Open Forum portion of the meeting.
Perske said he has been waiting a year to hear plans to replace the warming house/shelter/outdoor rink that were demolished during construction of the Scheels Athletic Complex, which recently opened next to the Bernick’s Arena in Pinecone Regional Park.
“Regional,” said Perske, means the facilities there should be for all people. That premise, he added, is why those facilities qualified, twice, for regional half-cent sales-tax dollars.
“It is a travesty to destroy that shelter and outdoor sheet and remove those community opportunities,” he said. “We lost a place for kids to gather with their friends after school and on weekends. It was a place for all individuals to use, from those that could excel and those that have special needs.”
Perske recalled that when he moved to Sartell 30 years ago, the city had skating and outdoor ice for everybody in the city to use. He recalled teaching his daughters to skate on a rink by the “old elementary school.”
Perske noted the city council agreed last year to contribute regional half-cent sales-tax revenue and golf-course lease payments for 10 years and other city funds in order to help an organization build the Scheels Sports Complex. Some years ago, Perske said, the city also spent the better part of a million dollars to construct a parking lot in front of Bernick’s Arena.
“So what’s the plan?” Perske asked. ”We cannot pretend that the amenity was demolished or was not there. It is totally unacceptable to think that we are going to do nothing – that the less fortunate and the whole community should give up a tremendous resource for the sake of the special interests of a few.”
Perske closed with this: “Certainly there should have been a plan to replace what was lost. This issue will not go away. The Sartell community deserves a response.”
