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Middle school location out for a hockey arena
Published Tuesday, January 29, 2008
City and school district officials have largely ruled out a future ice arena next to Fergus Falls Middle School, preferring to explore a site on high school property. The arena was the topic of a joint meeting between the city council and school board Monday.
“The gist of the meeting was, ‘What is the next step to get this thing moving along?’” Business Manager Mark Masten said.
As Masten explained, the original arena proposal put the facility next to the middle school, allowing for energy transfer between the two buildings. The Fergus Falls Hockey Association would raise $2.5 million for the project, while the city would bond and contribute $1.4 million over 20 years.
“As far as the school district is concerned no money will be coming out of the bonding project to go toward the hockey arena,” Masten said.
“With a preliminary report from ATS&R architects in December, planners discovered that little, if any, operational savings would be achieved by connecting the school to the arena, Masten said. An arena at the middle school site would also stress parking around the school and mean the disappearance of the current skatepark and tennis courts.
A modified, lower-cost proposal places the arena at the high school, where the district could provide a chiller, boiler, large parking lot, elevator, existing gymnasium, rooms and land, Masten said.
A potential location is on the high school’s southeast side, across from the gymnasium. According to Masten, the Fergus Falls Hockey Association has received pledges for $1.75 million and believes it will reach the $2.5 million goal with evidence the project is proceeding.
The next step is for the city to hire an architectural/engineering firm to draft drawings and finalize costs, Masten said.
“It was believed that the city would be the ultimate owner of the arena, so it is kind of their responsibility to take the baton,” he said.
Masten said he expects the ice arena will be a topic of discussion at Monday’s city council meeting.
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Witty is great. Abusive is not. If you think a post violates these standards, don't escalate the situation. Instead, flag the comment to alert us. We'll take action if necessary. It's not hard. This should be a place where people want to read and contribute -- a place for spirited exchanges of opinion. So those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post at all.Posted by misadventurer (anonymous) on January 29, 2008 at 5:24 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Well, finally a bit of sanity.
Posted by olson736 (anonymous) on May 8, 2008 at 6 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The high school location was their first location for the hockey arena from the very beginning. It was discussed with the city of Fergus Falls administration over a year ago.
It is not true that there isn't any bonding money to be spent. They are tearing down a valuable building on the same unstable ground as the middle school location. I believe you will find they budgeted over $250,000 to tear it down. If you recall a couple of referendums ago they were talking about how high the water table was and how unstable the ground is. Now it is OK to build a hockey arena on this ground. The only thing is they are tearing down a perfectly usable building.
They just wait for everybody to forget and then do what they want with the full support of the city of Fergus Falls administration. They make it sound like this is a new idea. It's not they just want you to believe it is.
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