Larry Larson will help the Mower County Board of Commissioners answer the so-called "$4 million question" today.

Tuesday, October 05, 1999

Larry Larson will help the Mower County Board of Commissioners answer the so-called "$4 million question" today.

Larson, chair of the long-range steering committee on infrastructure, is slated to appear before the county commissioners this afternoon.

Larson will share the committee’s recommendations on siting the multipurpose building on the fairgrounds.

Only a week ago, the committee members, all appointed by the county board, held a special meeting to review input obtained at three previous committee meetings.

At a Sept.23 meeting, representatives of LHB Architectural & Engineering Services, Inc., Minneapolis offered nine site options to the committee members.

They ranged from siting the 250-by-250 foot multi-purpose building essentially in the north central, south central or central part of the fairgrounds in southwest Austin, as well as the northwest corne.

That was a a site favored by the Mower County Extension Service committee.

The options also included moving the Mower County Historical Center, relocating the livestock buildings and clearing the grandstands from the fairgrounds.

All of the options included main entrances off 12th St. S.W. (Highway 105 South).

Because the new multipurpose building will have two sheets of ice, an extensive portion of the area around the building at every site option was devoted to parking.

The county board recruited citizens to serve on the long-range steering committee and its sub-committees on public health, land use/economic development, youth/family, elderly and infrastructure.

In part, the committee members have been mandated to recommend to the county commissioners how to spend some $31.7 million in reserves accumulated over the years and far greater than those reserves held by any other county in Minnesota.

The county board has made the multipurpose building a priority with Dave Hillier and Gary Nemitz, 3rd and 5th districts’ commissioners and the board’s building committee given the responsibility for spearheading the project.

Today, the county board will hear from Larson, who will report the recommendations by a 4-1 vote (5 members were missing when the meeting was held Sept. 27) of the infrastructure sub-committee members.

The recommendations include siting the building east of the Plager Building and the grandstands; between the 4-H building and Plager Building; and the center of the fairgrounds or the south central portion of the fairgrounds.

The dissenting vote at the Sept. 27 meeting was cast by sub-committee member, Bob Radloff, a former long-time Fair Board member.

Radloff wants the multi-purpose building sited at the Austin Development Park (formerly called the "Cook farm" in northwest Austin).