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Outdoor facilities referendum set [UPDATED]
Published 10:37am Tuesday, August 14, 2012 Updated 10:37am Tuesday, August 14, 2012When Fergus Falls residents head to the polls on Nov. 6, they will be asked to vote on a $6,265,000 bond referendum that would change the face of the outdoor facilities at Cleveland School, Roosevelt Education Center and Kennedy Secondary School.
“This is not for a $6 million dollar football stadium,” superintendent Jerry Ness said at the school board meeting Monday.
The project would reconfigure much of the green space to provide more space for athletics and physical education classes, he said.
Roosevelt Education Center would have its baseball field improved and the outfield would serve as a practice football field. A fence would be installed around the site as a deterrence for geese.
Cleveland School would have its large green space reconfigured into two soccer fields. One would be regulation size for high school games and the other would be a smaller practice field. The lighted ice arena would be relocated to the Roosevelt site, south of the community arena. The warming house would remain in its location and be used as restrooms, concessions and storage.
Kennedy Secondary School would move the football/track and field complex to the southeast corner of the Kennedy site, near the current location of the soccer fields. This would allow for an eight-lane track, so larger scale track and field meets could be held in Fergus Falls. The current location of the tennis courts would be turned into additional parking space, and eight new tennis courts would be built adjacent to where the existing courts are now. Two softball fields would be built where the one baseball field is now, with a practice football field between them. Practice fields for football and physical education classes would be placed near the site of the current football stadium. The entire area would have proper drainage and irrigation.
The project would be paid for through a 20-year extension to the 1994 bond referendum to build the high school science wing. The extension would cost taxpayers less than they are currently paying on the 1994 bond referendum. Taxpayers are paying $23.16 per year on a $100,000 property, but for the 20-year extension, the same property owner would pay $20.28 per year.
For more information on the outdoor facility bond referendum, including a complete cost analysis, check the Fergus Falls Public Schools August newsletter.
O Geesh, here we go again. The Hockey Arena wasn’t enough now we want a multi-million dollar athletic compound.
The 1994 referendum is about to expire or has expired. So give the taxpayers a break. Why doesn’t the school board see that we are tired of paying through the nose. It seems as if they need to come up with money to spend so they can keep it going.
We all know how the school budget goes, spend all of our money so we can ask for the same next year, if we don’t use it we lose it, Well this is not an annual budget, And the community is tired of having to pay for your glorified embellishments. We don’t need a new track, we don’t need a new football field, we don’t need new tennis courts, these are all WANTS.
As a child my mother and father tried to instil the difference in me the difference between a NEED and a WANT. ISD 544 you are a spoiled little child. and the rest of us please VOTE NO to all of these shennanigans.
Pardon my spelling and grammer, I was educated in the Fergus Falls school system where they weren’t so interested in advancing and keeping great teachers and technology, they were more interested in new hockey arenas, and sports complexes.
wow! only $6,265,000 to shuffle around whats already there? I think Id rather they were pitching a $6million dollar football stadium. it’s time someone pushes Jerry Ness’s nose into a blueprint and then shakes a coffee can with nuts and bolts in it or maybe spray him with a little water and say No!
Hey if moving a football field a few feet will improve little Johnnies reading abilities, I’m all for it.
Besides six million dollars isn’t too much to pay to stop skating around in goose poop.
I like the part where they say “The entire area would have proper drainage and irrigation.”
They must have hired some different scientists than the ones they used last time.
This project would have a much better chance of being approved and constructed if the facility was termed a “regional” something or another and the referendum process bypassed and just approved by the city council and port authority. Sounds like another excellent use/extension for sales tax. Oh, but wait, there’s the water park, library, fire station, police station and who knows what other “needed” projects.