City to gauge county’s interest in rec center project

Published 10:57 am Monday, May 9, 2016

The county board could soon ponder its potential role in the proposed $35 million Austin Community Recreation Center project.

Clark

Clark

Austin City Administrator Craig Clark is set to go before the county board at its regular Tuesday morning meeting in the basement of the Mower County Government Center. He plans to gauge if the county board has any interest in partnering on the public portions or financial participation for the project.

If the project moves forward, the city would likely pay about $200,000 for public portions of the rec center to be available to Austin residents.

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City staff want to gauge if the county board wants to make a similar arrangement to make those portions available to county residents.

Vision 2020 Community Recreation Center Committee’s plan to build a $35 million rec center at the downtown Austin Municipal Plan site. The Austin City Council has recently been discussion and a proposed $2 million purchase agreement to buy the plant site and a $200,000 operating agreement for the Y to manage the public portions of the site. It is yet to vote on the project.

In other business, the board will hear a department report from Assessor Joy Kanne, it will award bids for road and bridge projects, and it will discuss a 4-H request to build a storage site at the Mower County Fairgrounds.

The board meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. in the with Kanne’s department report, followed by Human Services Board at 9 a.m. and the regular meeting at 9:30 a.m.

The board meets in the basement board room of the government center, 201 First St. NE.