Council applies for Hormel grant for arena

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 17, 1999

Requesting grant money from the Hormel Foundation is not unusual for the city of Austin – it’s annual.

Tuesday, August 17, 1999

Requesting grant money from the Hormel Foundation is not unusual for the city of Austin – it’s annual. However, it’s not often the city requests $350,000. This year that’s the number one request – $350,000 to go towards the county’s proposed multi-purpose arena.

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Why is the city, not the county, requesting the grant?

Because the county doesn’t have anyone representing it sitting on the Hormel Foundation Board, a requirement for any grant request. The city – in the shape of former mayor John O’Rourke – does.

"The county (Board of Commissioners) asked if they could come through the city for a grant request," Mayor Bonnie Rietz said after Monday’s Austin City Council meeting. "The council felt strongly that we should make that our number one grant request."

If granted, the funds would be applied toward the costs of building the proposed multipurpose arena at the Mower County Fairgrounds in Austin. Current estimates place the cost of building the arena – which would house two sheets of ice during the colder months – at more than $4 million.

"This (the grant requests) has been happening for years," Rietz said. "The board really has been very good at supporting community projects."

The multipurpose arena won’t be the only grant request from the city of Austin. The council voted Monday to submit the following requests in the order stated.

1.) Multipurpose Arena – $350,000. So far, the county board has said it will pay for $1.8 million of the costs, with $500,000 coming from state Mighty Ducks grants; $600,000 pledged from the Hormel Company; $250,000 from Austin Youth Hockey with the Hormel Company promising to match that sum dollar for dollar and $100,000 from the city of Austin.

2.) Joint Austin/Mower County Home Ownership Assistance Program – $25,000. This is down from $50,000 requested (and granted) in previous years, because the program to help first-time homebuyers with mortgage down payments is closer to being self-sufficient.

3.) Skate Park – $25,000. These funds would go toward upgrading and improving Austin’s skate park, now a temporary structure on the northeast corner of the Mill Pond, from tier one to tier two. Tier two skate parks allow more difficult stunts and provide more challenge for the intermediate-level skater or skateboarder. The funds would be matched by fundraising and/or city contributions.

4.) Canoes, equipment and a brush mower for the JC Hormel Nature Center – $10,179. The funds would go for eight new canoes, repair of existing canoe trailer, 12 life jackets, 12 youth canoe paddles and a seven-foot mower to replace the old brush mower. The Hormel Foundation provided the funds for the nature center’s first canoes, purchased 14 years ago.

5.) Smoke detectors and batteries for the Austin Fire Department – $2,500. The Foundation has funded this request in the past. The fire department makes the smoke detectors available to lower income residents of the community at no charge.

6.) Portable stage for the Austin Park and Rec Department – $61,000. The stage is used during the SPAM™TOWN USA festival and at other city celebrations.

The council agreed it would fund the one other request – for $1,000 to rent the burn building – from the Austin fire department with city funds.

"Each year we rank our requests in order, but you have to remember that not all this will probably get funded," Rietz said.

"My betting is they won’t go six deep after looking at number one," city administrator Pat McGarvey said in the council finance meeting prior to the council meeting.

In order to qualify for a grant from the Hormel Foundation, an organization must be ruled tax exempt by the Internal Revenue Service; be operated for charitable, educational or scientific purposes with no part of the funds inuring to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual; and be located in or affect the Mower County area.

Rietz said the council should hear which requests are granted by the Foundation sometime in November. Other agencies represented on the board include United Way, the Red Cross, the YMCA and the Salvation Army.