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Managing editor

Consensus seems to be emerging in the Coon Rapids City Council’s community center debate.

Following a four-hour work session at Anoka-Ramsey Community College Monday, the council is not yet ready to take a vote on the proposed project.

But it did set another work session for Tuesday, Dec. 8, at a time and place yet to be decided, but probably at the Coon Rapids City Center.

And at that time the council will receive additional information, including cost estimates, on the scope of a project on which a clear majority of the council seems to be leaning toward moving forward.

Specifically, the council will be considering a community center that includes an ice arena, senior center/community rooms, indoor playground, party rooms and a commons/concession stand area.

Out of the picture for what would likely be the first phase is an aquatics facilities, gymnasiums, fitness center and running track.

And Councilmember Joe Sidoti made it clear that he would never support any component, the fitness center, for example, that competed with the private sector.

Nor did there seem to be majority support for the  park and ice trail, proposed between a community center and Coon Rapids Boulevard, although some green space would be needed to meet code requirements; “grass and trees” were suggested.

But also entering the mix is the possibility of a county library being part of a community center following a recent meeting between some councilmembers, city staff and the Anoka County Library Board.

Information the council wants from staff and the consulting team headed by architects Perkins+Will Dec. 8 are revised cost estimates for each of the components now proposed, operational costs, staffing needs, cost of including future phase mechanical systems and the cost for the consultants (their fee is 7 percent of the estimated construction cost) to move ahead with the design development and/or final plans for bidding stages for those segments.

From that work session, the goal will be to have a proposed first-phase project on the regular council agenda Tuesday, Dec. 15, which is the last council meeting of the year, for a vote on whether to move forward to the design development phase and the scope of that project.

Based on the construction cost estimates before the council Monday, Councilmember Scott Schulte put a price tag on the proposed package at $29 million, which includes almost $9 million for land acquisition, building demolition and business relocation costs for the old Target site and adjacent retail area on Coon Rapids Bouevard that the council purchased for $5-plus million last year and which has been designated as the site for the proposed community center.

The council reached this point following a long discussion facilitated by Bill Joynes, Midwest Government Advisors, who then provided the council with a written list of project components and asked councilmembers to write down “yes” or “no” to each piece of the community center puzzle.

From that exercise, there was unanimity on the part of the council that there is a “need for a community center” in Coon Rapids.

The council was also unanimous in wanting to build a new ice arena, the original impetus for the community center debate because of concern over how much longer the infrastructure of the present arena, more than 30 years old, will last.

But the list also showed a clear majority, five or six “yes” votes for the senior center/community rooms/event center, indoor playground and party rooms.

There was also some support for a fieldhouse instead of three gymnasiums, but that quickly dissipated when Steve Miller of Perkins+Will said a fieldhouse would cost $3 million more than the gymnasiums.

In addition, apart from Mayor Tim Howe and Councilmembers Denise Klint, the majority of councilmembers preferred a phased approach to the project.

But there remain concerns on the part of some councilmembers over the cost of the scaled back proposal.

For one, Councilmember Paul Johnson said he is not ready to vote for anything but the ice arena until he sees the new cost estimates for not only construction but operations as well.

And Sidoti objected to the $29 million price tag, as well as to the estimated cost of the ice arena itself, $11.746 million in the latest estimates or $217.86 for a 53,918 square-foot facility.

According to Sidoti, he had received documentation that a new 42,000 square-foot ice arena that had recently opened in Rogers had been built for $6.2 million at $147 per square-foot.

Consultant Todd Christopherson, Amcon, who has prepared the cost estimates for the community center project, was not aware of the Rogers arena, but said his numbers for the proposed Coon Rapids facility were based on similar arena projects and he would check into the Rogers arena to see if the comparison was “apples to apples.”

Schulte, while stating that the senior center component was important, was concerned about operating costs that had been given to the council for the entire project, as well as the staffing required even for the scaled back version the council was now considering.

But Klint’s concern was that the project would not be a community center unless it was built all at once.

“We need to move the city forward,” Klint said. “We can’t look back. This is the right plan.”

However, Councilmember Melissa Larson said taxpayers can’t afford the entire project.

According to figures presented to the council Monday, the project’s cost estimate is $37,823,673, if all components were included, but it does not include land acquisiton, demolition and relocation costs close to another $9 million as well as the cost of relocating 111th Avenue.

And projected operational costs when revenues and expenditures are reconciled would mean an additional tax levy of some $375,000 a year for the total package.

“That figure won’t go down,” Schulte said. “It will be there for perpetuity.”

Mayor Tim Howe said the center as proposed would create a sense of community and be a destination spot in Coon Rapids.

“We need to create a destination on the boulevard,” he said.

And Councilmember Bruce Sanders, while going along with a phased approach, said there were some economies of scale with a larger project.

But Johnson said he could not support a project of the magnitude proposed in the total package, only a project that was phased over several years.

“This is a quality of life issue,” Schulte said. “Coon Rapids has a good quality of life and a community center would make it better and this would be one step.”

Steps are important in this project; it can’t be done all at once, Schulte said.

Peter Bodley is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it