Over the past year and a half, the Garretson City Council has been working toward the creation of a community center/event hall and new City Hall. On Monday, May 24, the council gathered with ISG Architect's Josh Muckenhirn, whom they've been working closely with on preliminary plans and ideas for the facilities.
As a part of the exploratory phase, initial proposals and locations were presented, both to the council and to the public. A survey, which helped the council understand the highest needs and priorities for the community, was also presented earlier this year.
At that point, it became necessary for the council to determine a few critical aspects prior to being able to move forward, including the number of facilities, size of the buildings, and the cost that could be shouldered for construction.
Garretson is currently in the middle of several infrastructure projects, including a sewer, water, and streets replacement on 3rd Street, Main Avenue, and the truck route (Railroad, Essex, and Depot Avenues). They are also waiting on the State to approve the bridge construction on 5th Street, a street which also needs some work. Infrastructure replacement and construction on 4th Street is also planned in the next two years.
The council also recently approved two TIFs (tax-incremental financing) on developments within the city limits, which allows developers to receive a subsidy for improvements. These work to incentivize developers to come into a town such as Garretson. Unfortunately, TIFs work against the allowed debt limit a city is allowed to have, which is capped at 5%.
This means, that despite the definite need for both a community center and a new city hall, the City is unable to shoulder the kind of facilities that Garretson may desire. At a February special meeting, City Finance Officer Anna Uhl had indicated that initial estimates allowed for only $2.8 million to be placed toward constructing a new facility.
All initial proposals had come in over $4 million.
After hearing that limit, the council opted to pursue the one facility option, instead of two. This would induce cost savings in utilities, personnel, and construction.
On May 24, the council determined the facility may have to be built in stages, with the Community Center built first.
While this puts a needed City Hall in a holding pattern, Mayor Greg Beaner believes the city needs the community center first.
"It'll have a capacity for 350 people," he said, in an interview with the Gazette after the meeting, but beyond that, the facility may be fairly bare-bones. It'll still use materials that are good quality, but they won't be high-end. Much of the additional wants and needs for the facility may have to wait.
"We have to start with what affects and helps the most people," Mayor Beaner said. "Maybe it's not ideal, but it's a starting place."
He pointed out that some of the final details for what will be placed into the facility may be decided by the task force instead of the council.
Muckenhirn was asked to go back to the drawing board to determine how much facility the City could build in the first phase.
"We could [potentially] do the whole build in one shot, but then 4th Street will have to wait," said Mayor Beaner. In a few years, the City is likely to be in a better financial position to start on the next phase.
Along with the discussion of how big the building would be, and how many facilities it would contain, is a discussion about location. Five locations were presented to the council and the public in the initial presentation, including the corner by the softball fields at Dows and Center, a piece of land on 5th Street currently owned by Al Nordstrom, a currently-wooded area across the creek right off the railroad property, the area behind the maintenance sheds off 5th Street, and the current City Hall property.
Each of those locations comes with somewhat prominent cons, including that of moving City Hall off Main, lack of parking, being too close to the railroad, and water concerns. The council has not yet decided whether any of those locations has more positives than negatives.
Chad Hanisch of Infrastructure Designs, a civil engineer who has been working closely with both the City and the architects, agreed at the May 24 meeting to have some boring done on the properties with water concerns. This would give the council a better idea on whether those two locations should be crossed off the list. However, the lack of parking at the current City Hall and at the proposed maintenance shed area (which also is extremely close to the railroad in both cases), may have already eliminated those two. The wooded area to the east of Split Rock Creek had been eliminated early due to several issues, including a steep slope.
Mayor Beaner indicated the council may have to look elsewhere entirely for an area to build the facility, but where that may be was not suggested.
And until the new plans are presented to the council, further decisions will have to wait.
