If the Apex Austin organization decides to take up the county’s offer of office space in the Mower County Courthouse, it would likely be on a temporary basis only.

Monday, April 10, 2000

If the Apex Austin organization decides to take up the county’s offer of office space in the Mower County Courthouse, it would likely be on a temporary basis only. However, any location for a proposed welcome center and Apex office is on hold until a director is hired, which probably will be in June.

"The county’s offer was very kind and generous, but the reports were wrong," Welcome Center committee co-chairwoman Joni Finnegan said. "We haven’t said we’re moving in yet. We haven’t agreed to anything. Right now we view the hiring of a full-time director as the most important thing, because all the other parts will coordinate with that person."

Apex Austin was formed in the fall of 1999. It was intended to be a citizen-driven group working toward the betterment of Austin, and is made up of about 30 resident volunteers invited by Mayor Bonnie Rietz to participate in such a committee. One of the major tasks of Apex is to use a $5 million challenge grant from the Hormel Foundation to address the primary issues of diversity, housing, transportation, child care and education in Austin. The challenge part is that the foundation would like Apex to find other funding sources as well – private or public – to at least match their contributions.

Already this spring, the group – working with the Parenting Resource Center – were instrumental in getting a bilingual, 24-hour child-care center opened in the Catherwood Home at 707 Fourth St. NW.

Finnegan hopes the hiring of a new director will be the group’s next accomplishment.

"We will be asking the foundation board for funds to hire someone at their April meeting," Finnegan said. "Once we get someone on board to be the director of the Apex center, they can help us finish creating the picture and follow through with the rest of the fund raising we need to do."

Finnegan said the ideal director would have a business background and excellent public relations skills, needed to communicate not only with the newcomers he or she would be trying to help, but also with the landlords, agencies and businesses that Apex will be working with.

The committee plans to have the job description and applications available for pick up from the offices of the Development Corp. of Austin at Riverland Community College’s west campus by the week after Easter.

As for the site, there are several possibilities. Members of the welcome center committee have looked at a number of potential sites, including the courthouse, the Wold Drug building, office space in the Reeve Chiropractic center and OakPark Mall.

Finnegan explained that the courthouse location’s association with government and law enforcement and limited space to grow were two reasons she didn’t see it as a permanent location. Also, Apex would want a separate entrance on the north side and weekend hours.

For now, those issues are moot.

"The building has to come after the director," Finnegan said.