Four fairground spots tapped for county arena

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, September 28, 1999

The Mower County strategic planning infrastructure committee has agreed to recommend, not one, but four possible locations for the proposed new multipurpose building at the fairgrounds in Austin.

Tuesday, September 28, 1999

The Mower County strategic planning infrastructure committee has agreed to recommend, not one, but four possible locations for the proposed new multipurpose building at the fairgrounds in Austin.

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One of the committee members insisted that his personal recommendation to locate the building at the former Cook farm site will be included with the committee’s recommendation.

The Mower County Board of Commissioners is meeting today, but the committee’s recommendation will not be heard by the commissioners at this time, according to Larry Larson, chairman of the committee. That will come at some future date; possibly next week.

The committee’s decision at Monday night’s meeting, by a 4-1 vote, was not a "ringing" endorsement as the discussion indicated.

John Steele, rural Sargeant, made the motion to recommend four choices for the multipurpose building’s location. Tony Mudra, rural Lyle, seconded it. Steele, Mudra, Betty Schumann, rural Grand Meadow, and Delos Frank, rural Lyle, all voted "Aye."

Dissenting was Bob Radloff, Austin, a former 15-year member of the Mower County Fair Board.

"Why aren’t they building it at the Cook farm site?" Radloff asked at the outset of a lengthy presentation. "Everybody knows that in 10 to 12 years, they’ll be talking about moving the entire county fair out there. They’ve got plenty of room; something they don’t have at the fairgrounds now.

"It’s going to be used for hockey. We all know that. The Barrow Show doesn’t need it. The County Fair has done just fine without it. Why not build it out there?" Radloff said.

The Cook farm site is now called the Austin Development Park. The 200 acres was traded to the city of Austin by its former owner, Hormel Foods Corporation, in exchange for the deed to the land on which the Austin Country Club is located.

The city of Austin has been unable to develop any portion of the tract of land located in far northwest Austin between U.S. Highway 218 and old Highway 218 (County No. 45).

Meanwhile, the county fairgrounds is located in southwest Austin surrounded on all sides by residential neighborhoods.

Radloff made his comments prior to an examination of nine site options for the fairgrounds prepared by the LHB Engineers & Architects firm retained by the county board three weeks ago to assist with the project.

The county commissioners have committed $1.8 million of the county’s reserves to building a 250-by-250-foot multipurpose building on the fairgrounds.

Estimated to cost $4.1 million, the building would contain two sheets of ice. The city of Austin wants to close its own Riverside Arena to ice skating and turn it into a community center after watching the facility lose over $113,000 a year.

The county board says it anticipates operating revenues from Austin High School’s coed varsity hockey program and Austin Youth Hockey, plus the Riverside Figure Skating Club, to operate the facility "in the black."

The county board mandated the strategic planning committee to recommend a site location for the multipurpose building "on the fairgrounds," committee facilitator Mary Laeger-Hagemeister reminded members after Radloff’s "move it to the Cook farm site" presentation began the meeting.

Using eight different criteria, the committee members, seven of 11 appointed to the committee, rated the four options.

East of the Plager Building, between it and the grandstands, ranked atop the list. The recommendation of the Mower County Extension Service Committee ranked second. That would put it between the 4-H building and the Plager Building. A site option at dead center of the fairgrounds and one in the south central area of the fairgrounds ranked third and fourth, respectively.

When the vote was taken, Radloff insisted that committee chair Larson include his personal recommendation to move the building to the city-owned property in northwest Austin be relayed formally to the county commissioners and Larson said he would do that.

Kyle Klaehn, a Fair Board member, said the committee had chosen the best possible locations for the building in their recommendations. However, Klaehn cautioned the committee against thinking about moving the county fair.

Then Burt Plehal, an Austin businessman, spoke. Plehal said the best location for the building was the property owned by the county south of 8th Ave. S.W. However, Plehal also had a warning for the committee members.

Using the Town Center building as an example, Plehal said, "The city of Austin put over $2 million into this building in downtown Austin and the assessor has it listed on the tax rolls with a value of only $400,000. Think what is going to happen when you put a new building like that on the fairgrounds with all those old buildings around it. It will depreciate fast."

After the meeting, Mudra said he felt comfortable with the committee’s recommendations and Schumann said she did, too.

"If they can get more events into the building, that could make all the difference," she said.

Larson said, "It was not my decision to have the building or not. I was asked to serve on a committee that was told to make a recommendation. I feel very comfortable with the recommendations being made by the committee."

Steele said, too, the committee was handicapped by the criteria applied by the county commissioners, which essentially instructed them to recommend where the new building would go on the fairgrounds and leave no other off-fairgrounds options open for consideration.

"I still question whether the county should own this building," Steele said. "It’s more good for the city of Austin than all of Mower County."