Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Townships walk out of meeting regarding the joint-use facility



Less than a half hour into a joint meeting, several township
officials from Bergen and Winsted townships walked out on the Lester Prairie
School Board and Lester Prairie City Council last Monday night.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss plans of a joint-use
facility in the community.

However, township board members did not seem satisfied
with information presented to them.

Just prior to the rift, township members asked several
questions about the facility.

“What we would like to get to before we leave tonight,
is an idea of who’s interested in sitting down and rolling up their sleeves
and answering questions,” Kyllo said.

“If anyone is not interested in sitting at the table
and putting money in for bonding, then they’re not sitting at the table,”
Kyllo continued.

With that, six township members left, Eugene Feltmann,
Alden Enger, Mike Laxen, Pat Lemke, Ervin Mathews, and Albert Teubert.

“By Mr. Kyllo’s comment, the townships felt that were
asked to leave if we didn’t contribute money,” Feltmann said in an
interview a few days after the meeting.

“We didn’t get any answers that we came for,”
he said. “We didn’t have enough information to make a decision of whether
or not to add to the project.”

The meeting originally started with a brief overview of
two options presented by attorney William Partridge of Farrish Johnson Law
Office in Mankato, who is overseeing the joint powers agreement.

One idea for a community facility to work would be a joint
option, where two entities, such as the school district and city, both fund
the project, Partridge said.

Each “unit” has to levy on some type of basis
to contribute, he said.

The other idea is a shared option, where only the school
district would levy.

The school district would work out an agreement with whatever
organization, the city for instance, who would want to use it, Partridge
said.

“Would there be a separate group that would operate
the facility and watch costs?” asked Lester Prairie Mayor Eric Angvall.

The law requires that a sub-committee be formed if a joint
venture is approved. For the shared option, there is no legal requirement,
but a committee can still be formed, Partridge said.

School board members Barry Kyllo and Fred Blaser asked
the townships what their thoughts were on the project.

Bergen Township board member Feltmann raised the question
of why the townships hadn’t been brought into the planning sooner, he asked.

“This is the planning,” Blaser replied.

“How can you have a dollar figure if you don’t have
a plan?” Feltmann asked. $7.3 to $9.6 million is what he’s seen for
dollar amounts, he said.

“It’s purely an estimate,” said school board
member Chester Hoernemann. Everything is tentative, he added.

“In order to get a discussion started, you have to
have some point to start the discussion,” Angvall said.

There’s been talk between the school and city and few actual
joint meetings, Angvall said.

“If you want to be involved in the actual planning
of it and what’s in the structure, now’s the time,” he said.

“Is this a realistic figure? Is it feasible?”
Feltmann asked.

“What’s the tax implications on a $150,000 house?”
he asked. “We have to know if it’s feasible to do.”

“That’s what the meeting next month is for,”
Supt. James Redfield said. Financial advisor and Vice President Joel Sutter
of Ehlers and Associates will be present Thursday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. at
a joint-use committee meeting to answer questions.

The financial consultant will be there to explain, Redfield
said.

“Before the question of how much is this building
going to cost, is the question of what are we going to put into this building?”
Blaser said.

“If you went on tax impact per million dollars, you
could figure out how much it costs,” Feltmann said.

That’s not really an exact way to get costs because of
the way state funding is for school districts, Kyllo said.

State aid is usually more the bigger the project, Angvall
said.

The subject of the discussion veered off course, with talk
of construction costs and labor.

Lester Prairie resident and former mayor Ed Mlynar, the
only person from the public to attend the meeting, encouraged the board
and council to hire local labor, which both groups agreed they would try
to do.

After the township members left, Redfield asked what happened.

“Apparently, they don’t want to sit at the table,”
said school board member Nancy Krull said.

“You can still provide input,” she told them
as they left.

Redfield asked if they said anything before they left.
Everyone shook their heads.

“I think probably what it is, they really don’t have
a use for the facility,” Mlynar said. “They have their city halls
and their polling places.”

“It has to go to the polls and that’s where it’ll
be decided anyway,” Mlynar said.

“Ultimately, all the entities have an investment in
this. If we can get the facility and we can have a top notch media center
that’s available to the community, members of the township, and students,
it adds to the community,” Krull said.

It would also give more reasons for people to move to this
area, she added.

Those who are moving out here from the metro area expect
certain services in a community, Hoernemann said. Blaser agreed.

“I apologize to the township people,” Redfield
said. “That thing with the city survey and those questions (the school
district added). The feedback was ‘how come it only went to people in the
city?’ Well, because it happened to be a city survey.”

“I feel really bad if they (township members) think
there was some type of exclusion,” Redfield said.

Partridge hoped the townships didn’t feel like the others
were looking to them to foot the bill, he said.

If it’s a shared-use facility, it’s going to be a school
facility, then the townships and the city will all be taxed, said Lester
Prairie City Clerk Marilyn Pawelk. “Townships are part of the school
district.”

The township board members may not see a need for the township
to use the facility, but their residents may have a need, she said.

The general consensus of the school board and city council
was that it made sense that if a facility were built, the school should
do it because of the better financial breaks it would receive, rather than
the city. “I firmly believe it’s a school district issue and that the
city should lease it,” Mlynar said.

Before more meetings and discussion can proceed, all groups
involved need to have the numbers laid out, Krull said.

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