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The city of Farmington has done quite a bit of research into building a community center.

It’s clear there is a need for such a facility. Surveys, studies and, most important, residents have said as much.

But the bottom line is even clearer: The city doesn’t have the money right now. It’s crunched the numbers and it can’t justify hitting residents with the tax increase it would take to get the project done. So, several months ago, the plans, initial legwork and surveys were filed away.

Since May, however, Independent School District 192 has been piecing together a plan and doing the necessary research to determine whether it can come up with a plan that works. Administrators started thinking about the idea of incorporating a sportsplex into the new Farmington High School, currently under construction on Flagstaff Avenue near the west end of town.

The district has spent the past several months meeting with city officials, other school district representatives, the architect for the high school project, banks and other organizations to come up with a plan. After drawing up cost projections and researching financing options, the district believes it has a plan that could deliver a community center to Farmington at a cost of approximately $3 per month to the average homeowner. It believes the facility would go a long way toward setting the stage for significant economic development in town. And bringing a substantial base of new businesses to town is something the city has spent countless hours working on.

ISD 192 superintendent Brad Meeks and district leaders pitched the plan to the school board at a special meeting Tuesday afternoon and it was received well. There are certainly a lot of questions that have to be answered, but it is an opportunity the district will continue to investigate.

The idea would use the space set aside at the new high school site for future athletic facility expansion. An auxiliary gymnasium and additional outdoor tennis courts may be added back to the high school plan. But the new items include two attractive hockey/skating rinks and a 50-meter swimming facility. These and the other indoor and outdoor athletic facilities already in the new high school plans would all be tied together, creating easy access for high school fans and for youth section and state tournaments, practices, community use and multiple event possibilities.

And, yes, the figure printed above — approximately $3 per resident per month — is what the addition of the sports complex is estimated to cost.

“We’ve done the research and really looked at the options here. There are some real advantages to the school district doing a project like this rather than a city,” Meeks said. “The way we look at this, it’s not just a school thing. It’s about the city, local youth organizations, the school district and everyone coming together to get something big done for this community. It’s an idea we wanted to put out there.”

The research for the plan pitched to the school board on Tuesday began in May when representatives from the Farmington Youth Hockey Association approached school district administrators. The district listened to stories about local hockey teams driving as far as Faribault at 10 p.m. or later just to find available ice to practice on. Many surrounding communities have teams and organizations facing the same challenges.

Then the district did some research into the Schmitz-Maki Arena and learned the city will soon need to pay about $2 million to make necessary repairs and improvements to the facility.

The idea started small and, as other needs and opportunities presented themselves, the potential for something much larger surfaced.

The wheels immediately started turning in the heads of Meeks, FHS athletics director Jon Summer and others.

Over time, Meeks and others got to talking with representatives from the University of Minnesota. The University’s aquatic center is one of only two 50-meter pool facilities in the state. So, in addition to its own swim team practices, meets and classes, multiple outside organizations hold competitions and tournaments at the facility. That was the idea when the facility was built, but so many organizations are booking the facility that the University can’t handle all of the requests. And that number of requests keeps going up.

“We’ve talked to the University of Minnesota and they’d work with us to move about half of those swimming tournaments right here to Farmington if we put up the facility,” Meeks said. “This is just one example. Our own local organizations are always wishing they had a facility to bring in large-scale tournaments. They can’t host anything like that now. As far as we know, there is no other facility like this in Dakota County.

“We believe we would more than be able to cover the operational expenses with revenue brought in. The more we look at this option and the financial options and advantages in front of us, the more it makes sense. Think about the number of families that would be coming into Farmington for big tournaments. Think what that would do for existing businesses and how it would set the stage for further economic development.”

In addition to hosting tournaments and satisfying the needs of the school team programs and youth organizations, the facility would be open to the public. All of the indoor and outdoor facilities would be available for public use.

http://www.farmingtonindependent.com/articles/index.cfm?id=6281&section=homepage