The city of Austin passed the multipurpose arena puck back to the Mower County Board of Commissioners this morning, drafting a letter to the county requesting that they come back within a month with a less expensive proposal for the proposed multipurpose arena.

Monday, February 14, 2000

The city of Austin passed the multipurpose arena puck back to the Mower County Board of Commissioners this morning, drafting a letter to the county requesting that they come back within a month with a less expensive proposal for the proposed multipurpose arena.

After announcing at a joint meeting a week ago today that new estimates for the arena ranged from $5.5 million to $7.8 million, the county board gave the Austin City Council three options. They included:

-Contribute another $1.2 million.

-The city could watch the county build a $4.5 million pole shed.

-See the project go down the tubes.

For now, council members and city staff chose the pole shed option, giving the county until March 15 to come back with a $4.5 million plan "acceptable to all parties." City Administrator Pat McGarvey noted that the $250,000 already promised by the city was earmarked for the building’s exterior to make sure it wasn’t simply a metal barn.

If the county board fails to do that, odds are the city will take over the task of providing a second sheet of ice.

"The need is now for a second sheet of ice," Third Ward council member Dick Lang said. "It’s been a year and a half. … I would like to see the city move forward with the project. We have the expertise to get it done."

Lang proposed adding a second sheet of ice to Riverside Arena, referring to Riverside as the "Madison Square Garden" of southern Minnesota ice arenas. Lang is also the father of Austin High girls hockey standout Bobee Jo Lang, an all-conference player.

"It’s like they say, ‘If you want to get a job done properly, you gotta do it yourself," the outspoken council member added. "They can sit on their $35 million for another 10 years. Let’s just get the job done."

Fellow Third Ward council member Gloria Nordin concurred with Lang, saying that she would like to see the city come to the table March 15 with some of their own proposals.

City Engineer Jon Erichson pointed out that the county’s plan – although overbudget – offers several benefits not satisfied by adding another sheet of ice to Riverside or building only one sheet at another location.

"The county has an existing need for improvements at the fairgrounds already," Erichson said, "and there is the question of efficiency. If you have two separate facilities that means two staffs and two sets of equipment. Plus, (if the county proceeds with the multipurpose arena) we get a community activities center at Riverside. … It would be foolish not to give them at least another month."

Erichson advocated giving the architectural firm a chance to show what they could do.

"I would think the architects could come back with another plan to show what they could do with $4.2 million," he said, "otherwise they won’t have a job."

City Administrator Pat McGarvey read a rough draft of the proposed letter to the assembled council members (Lang, Nordin, Mickey Jorgenson for First Ward, Mayor Bonnie Rietz and city staff.

"We request that (the second) option be pursued vigorously so that all parties can come to an acceptable conclusion on the 15th of March," he read. "We also believe that the oversight committee should be convened as soon as possible."

The oversight committee would be composed of contributing parties such as Hormel Foods Corp. and Austin Youth Hockey and figure skating as well as well as county and city representatives. To date, most of the planning has been in the hands of the architectural firm and the county board’s building committee, comprised of Commissioners David Hillier and Gary Nemitz.