Loud, enthusiastic applause filled the Austin City Council's chambers Monday as council passed resolutions for the transfer of land from Hormel Foods Corp. for the new ice arena and the construction bid from the firm of Schroeder and Leverington, of Minneapolis.

The council also passed resolutions for hiring the firm of M.J. O'Connor for the renovation of the Riverside Arena refrigeration system and they approved a resolution for the purchase of an ice resurfacer from Becker Arena Products, of the Twin Cities.

The new arena and renovation of Riverside Arena will cost $3.85 million, the refrigeration system will cost $176,000 and the ice resurfacer will cost $70,226.

The four resolutions were approved by votes of 5-2, with council members Wayne Goodnature and Pete Christopherson dissenting.

Goodnature explained he didn't approve of the project because "I think we're spending way too much money on one sport. I think it does help a blighted area, but almost all the kids in that area aren't able to afford playing hockey. Hockey is an especially expensive sport."

Larry Lyons, from the Austin Youth Hockey Association, pointed out the association has money set aside to help children who can't afford the sport and said more ice in Austin was desperately needed. An Austin hockey team recently had to play a home game in Owatonna, against Owatonna, because they couldn't get ice time in Austin. The new arena will ensure that won't happen again. "They should be able to play home games on home ice," Lyons said, adding.

Council member Dick Lang said he was voting for the resolutions because "it's so remarkable that we can invest in the kids … it keeps them in a clean activity and out of a bad activity."

"We obviously think this is a valuable project. We've spent four trillion hours working on it and I think we're all in favor of building this, with the exception of a few people," council member At-Large Dick Chaffee said. "But I don't think they disapprove of it, exactly. I think they're just looking down the road at future financial situations. It's truly a worthwhile project."

In other council news:

Resolutions approving labor agreements with the LELS Local 73, for the Austin Police Officers for 2002-03 and with the Austin Police Supervisors Union for 2002-04 were passed.

Austin's noise ordinance was changed so it now applies 24 hours a day. While this eliminates some confusion surrounding the ordinance, the real problems with it, city attorney Dave Hoversten explained, are "enforcement problems. The officer has to be there when the ordinance is broken, which can't be done very often unless we have a police officer on every corner of every block."

The Ordinance Committee discussed the draft of an ordinance permitting adult-use businesses in certain areas of the city.

The first ordinance states adult-use businesses are only permitted in the I-3 zoning district of the city, which is an area between Interstate 90 and Todd Park. The draft also says new adult-oriented businesses could not be built less than 500 feet from residential property, less than 1,000 feet from any church site, school site, day care facility or public park, or within 300 feet of any public pedestrian trail or another adult-oriented business. The restrictions in drafted ordinance excludes existing businesses.

The drafted ordinance will be discussed again at the next City Council meeting.

Amanda L. Rohde can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at :mailto:amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com