Discussion on the St. Michael-Albertville Ice Arena was heated at Monday night’s Albertville council meeting. Current proposals would require a bond to be passed which would add $22 annually to Albertville resident’s property taxes and $11 to St. Michael resident’s property taxes. (The difference is largely due to the different size and amount of residents in each city. St. Michael has more homes/residents, thus they do not need to charge each homeowner as much.)
City Administrator Larry Kruse shared a presentation outlining the history of the discussion, the issues, budget and updated costs. The current bond proposal includes a contribution from the St. Michael-Albertville School District which school officials have said is not possible to do at this time due to budget cuts.
Some of the issues include the ball park located next to the proposed second sheet of ice and the premium hourly rate the arena would charge compared to other communities.
Council member Dan Wagner asked the group if “$22 a year per property is worth it to impose on our residents?”
“We need to know how the council feels and if we agree with the board on principle.” Council member Larry Sorenson asked.
Council member John Vetsch was adamant that “Albertville wants to do this because it’s the right thing to do. The other partners aren’t as passionate or committed.”
Vetsch and school board member, Jeff Lindquist recently met with Senator Amy Koch regarding funding. While Koch was clear that it’s a tough time budget wise, but there is the possibility of a Mighty Ducks Grant.
City Clerk Bridget Miller changed the tone when she told the council, “I’m concerned about my job. Can the city really afford this project?”
Mayor Mark Meehan piped in with similar concerns. “I am concerned that we don’t have our priorities straight. We just got done hearing about flooding and infrastructure issues that we can’t resolve. How can we do this?”
The council agrees that there is a need and they would like to support the project, but would like to see what the other partners are willing and able to do.
“Let’s get a thermometer out there and see what the hockey association can raise and bring to the table,” Kruse suggested when asked what sort of number would work.
The hope is that the hockey association, the school district, St. Michael and Albertville will all contribute and work towards the completion of the project.
“I don’t want the conversation to end.” Sorenson said at the close of the long, heated discussion. “We have an opportunity, we’re getting close. Let’s continue to talk about it. Let’s not close the door.”
I'm a big supporter for construction of another ice rink!! How can I get more involved?? I would love to see STMA have a figure skating club!!
Has any one driving a road in the metro area or in Minneapolis with all the pot-holes? I have, I think the city is doing a great job of using our money because I don't see all the pot-holes around here. So if people are questioning so we have the money for this, ask yourself a question, has my home value gone up at all in the last 3 years. If no then less money coming in for all the other stuff.
Albertville has been very supportive of looking for ways to get a new rink done with minimum expense to tax payers and maximum return for local businesses. As a St. Michale resident, I'm disappointed that our city has done nothing to provide the same. My final point would be to ask residents if less than a $1 a month is too much to pay to support a project that benefits over 1500 local kids and adults? I'll even offer to pay Scott and Tony's bill each moth if they would get on board
Anything to bring money to our local business' and keep our kids active and out of trouble. Sign me up!!!
Next, look to Monticello for example. Their hockey association holds: meat raffles, bingo nights, pull tabs, fish frys, silent auctions and they are 100% sustainable through those fund raising activites. I might add that they are extremely popular. Maybe the City Council could reach out and invite a member of Monticellos hockey association to the next meeting? Don't get me wrong. I skate, I use the rink myself for open skate as do my kids. I'm all for expansion. But I view some very narrow sightedness here as do some of the other writers, that "if it works for me, great" attitude. Rather than assessing a TAX on everyone, fund raising and other options should be looked at first.
Tony, it was nice meeting you at the annual Albertville Open House on Saturday morning. I appreciate the discussion we had about this topic, and the concerns we shared amongst us. It was eye opening to me how valuable of an event that was, and the discussion and learning that can take place amongst the other activities there. I expressed to Larry and Tina that I thought it was great. That was a tremendous community gathering! Scott Berning
I understand there is tax dollars involved, but the money and pride is priceless for a community. Reading some of these negative thoughts makes me wonder how your outlet mall ever got built. It sounds like your two cities are happy to just be a 70 mile a hour blur to somewhere else.
@ A Dad. I don't know how you can be "baffled." You work in the retail industry, you should be pretty cognnizant of taxation and competition. This proposed arena is all about taxes (note, members want this assessed in one way or another against homeowners, not businesses etc. Both groups at this time should not be bearing additional burden of more taxes. Just look at what a total mess the federal budget is in, let alone the states. And Albertville recently cut hours of staff and City Hall is closed on Fridays to save money) . You may state "money and pride are priceless" but it doesn't ring true if a cities infrastructure costs come secondary. How do you get to the ice rink if the roads aren't plowed??? I've stated numerous times, and this is a glittering example of why gvmt should not be involved in endeavours such as this. If the rink was privately funded, this whole discussion would be moot.