The next joint city-county meeting takes on added significance.

Sunday, March 11, 2001

The next joint city-county meeting takes on added significance.

Wednesday’s session marks the first time Mower County and city of Austin officials will meet face to face since the Mower County Board of Commissioners’ decision to abandon the multipurpose building project.

Austin Mayor Bonnie Rietz already has expressed her disappointment over the decision.

Austin Youth Hockey officials Bill DeVries and Jennifer Jenkins, plus attorney Evan Larson, also expressed dismay that the long-anticipated project was derailed.

In fact, everywhere one goes in Austin, there is disappointment bordering on chagrin that the multipurpose building project has been abandoned.

Even the two candidates for the Fifth District seat on the Mower County Board have weighed in with strong words.

Gary Nemitz, the long-time Fifth District county commissioner, resigned in January because of health reasons. Five people filed for the remaining two years of Nemitz’s term and Dick Chaffee, an Austin City Council member at large, and Garry Ellingson, a former long-time Mower County Sheriff’s Department chief deputy, were the top vote-getters in a runoff election in late-February.

Now, Chaffee and Ellingson will square off March 20 in the special election to fill the unexpired Fifth District term of Nemitz.

Chaffee has made no secret of his desire to bring an "Austin influence" to the county board’s decision-making process.

He supported a multipurpose building project that would have included two sheets of ice and allowed the city of Austin to convert Riverside Arena into a recreation center.

"By any measurement, the economies of scale say that two sheets of ice are better than one and that’s what we would have had with the multipurpose building project," Chaffee said.

Chaffee also said he believes a building could have been constructed for the $5.5 million budgeted by the county board’s building committee.

"After three years of planning, discussion and raising the money, to abandon the project was just unacceptable," Chaffee said.

"Now, the equipment, the dollars and the renovation plans for Riverside Arena to turn it into an activity center and a recreation center, everything is in limbo, and the city will have to start all over," Chaffee said.

"And," Chaffee said, "is Mower County going to be a player if the city pursues a project of its own?"

Last Tuesday, the county board’s four members unanimously voted to abandon the multipurpose building project at the fairgrounds in southwest Austin.

The county commissioners blamed anticipated increased operating costs and the need to pass along those costs to user fees that the Austin Youth Hockey and Riverside Figure Skating Club would be forced to pay for the rejection.

The architectural fees that steadily increased were another factor in the county board’s decision to abandon the 3-year-old project.

When bids were received for the project budgeted at $5.5 million and including a $2.045 million contribution of the county’s reserves, they were nearly $2 million over the targeted figure. That also caused the county commissioners to quickly back away from the project.

Chaffee’s opponent in the election for the Fifth District seat on the county board, Ellingson, also registered disbelief.

"Naturally, I’m disappointed that after so many people spent so much time getting to this point, this had to happen," Ellingson said.

Ellingson said the "needs of the fairgrounds and the ice rink have to be addressed."

He vowed, "If elected I will work with the city to see a satisfactory result for all the parties involved."

However, Ellingson also said in preparation for his bid to win a seat on the county board he researched the issue by visiting with contractors.

"I can’t see spending $5.5 million on a building that wouldn’t be cost effective if we couldn’t guarantee it would be used and that there would be enough operating revenue to offset the operating expenses," he said.

The anticipated high energy costs, whatever the method used – geothermal or other – is one area that Ellingson he had concerns.

Call Lee Bonorden at 434-2232 or e-mail him at newsroom@austindailyherald.com.