State should fix its RTC mess

By Dave Churchill (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, December 8, 2006

Fergus Falls, MN — The key to preserving the historic structures on the former Regional Treatment Center campus can be boiled down to two words: Economic development. Unless the buildings can pay their own way commercially and, indeed, bring some enhancement to the community, there is no way that the city can afford to step in and act as preservationist.

It is good news indeed that a pair of developers have come forward with ideas that could keep the former nurses’ cottage and several other outlying buildings intact and in better shape than ever. Those plans involve converting the buildings to offices and multi-unit housing or condominiums.

The developers, both from Fargo, appear to be for real, and they have track records of commercial success. That does not mean that either plan will ultimately pan out; the ideas may not be economically viable, they may prove to require too large an investment by city taxpayers or some other fly may land in the ointment.

But there is more hope for preservation today than there was a month ago.

The big gorilla on the block, though, is the beautiful Kirkbride building — the huge, towered and curving structure that gives the Regional Treatment Center campus its identity. So gigantic a building, and so old a building, is more of a project than most private developers are willing to undertake. Certainly, preserving it is beyond the means of the city.

Fortunately, there is a way for the state to finally step up and take some responsibility for the situation it created by, first, building the gigantic main RTC building, then maintaining it for decades and, finally, for abandoning it with no plan for re-use. Instead of demolishing the structure or shuffling it off onto the hands of a small, local government, the state should simply put the structure back to use.

No, the Kirkbride is not ever likely to serve again as a medical facility. But given that it was in shape, not more than 10 years ago, to serve as a residential facility could it not easily be converted to office space? What a perfect solution: Let the state move about 350 of its administrative jobs to Fergus Falls, and office those workers in a remodeled Kirkbride building.

Consider the advantages of this move. First, the economic impact to outstate Minnesota — especially the Fergus Falls area – would be spectacular. 350 good state jobs, filled either by people moving from St. Paul or by people already living in this area.

Second, a new, revitalized use for a century-old building that has served the state well in the past and would be doing so again.

Finally, an opportunity to disperse Minnesota’s metrocentric government out to other parts of the state. A government that truly has an interest beyond the boundaries of the seven-county metro area would find many advantages in doing so.

How practical is this idea? It wants only the will of the Legislature and executive branch to make it happen. The year is 2006; telecommuting is the nature of much work. It would be simplicity itself to move some chunk of bureaucratic work now done in St. Paul out to the Fergus Falls area. High speed data transmission, computers, satellites, cell phones, faxes.... It matters not where office workers are located, provided they have electric service.

What would be the cost of remodeling the Kirkbride building? Unknown. But it would surely be the most cost-effective preservation effort that could be imagined.

Will this idea ever bear fruit? Not likely. Minnesota has become a state where the rural regions are largely satellites to the metropolitan area — great places to be from, or to visit on the weekends, to fish and boat and hunt, but perhaps not seen as desirable to those long accustomed to city living. And make no mistake, it is the metropolitan area that controls the power in this state.

Still, the need to preserve a now-defunct RTC campus is a mess that the state created. Here is an elegant way for it to help the city of Fergus Falls clean up that mess — to make lemonade out of a lemon.

Journal publisher Dave Churchill’s column runs on Fridays.