“Absolutely no more than $2.0 Million”. In September of 2009, this was the firm resolve of multiple Fergus Falls City Council members when stating the amount of Fergus Falls property tax dollars which they felt should be contributed to a proposed ice arena. But – seven of them were also firm in their resolution that Fergus Falls taxpayers absolutely should NOT be allowed to vote on this use of their property tax dollars. Blunder.
Within two weeks, that number doubled when the Council, in a 7 to 1 vote, approved a resolution to commit $4.0 million of city property tax increases to an arena project. When asked about projected annual operating cost for this significant facility, the answer was “…um, no idea”. Blunder.
The architectural firm hired by the city estimated the cost of construction at around $6.0 million. What would be the annual operating expenses for the facility? “that’s something city staff are working on”. Blunder.
Council members spoke stridently about how essential it was to capitalize on the opportunities of the current economy. By following an expedited timeline to begin construction in 2010, they expected bids from contractors (who would be hungry for work) to come in under the $6 million budget. Blunder.
Two times, in December of 2009 and five months later in May, Fergus Falls voters petitioned the City Council for the right to vote on the use of property tax dollars for this project. Twice the City Council told the voters to “call someone who cares”. Isn’t that blunderful?
All the way to June, 2010; voters have been told the ice arena just needed to be built – their approval doesn’t matter. But how many hundreds of thousands of dollars will the annual operating expenses add to the city budget? Again, “… no idea”. Is that responsible budgeting and planning for use of future taxpayer dollars? Blundering on.
Now the actual bids have come in – the low bid is $9.1 million – 1.5 times the estimate. Oops, looks like someone might have… blundered.
I wonder how the Fergus Falls City Council will handle this $3.0 million “reality check”. It is foolish to retain confidence in the Architectural firm who blundered so badly in estimating construction costs in their planning process; they should be fired. There should be a thorough review of all decisions and conclusions about this project – what other blunders have occurred? I think it would be a serious blunder to frantically push forward without critical evaluation of what has occurred up to this point.
By the way, because the fiscal responsibility of our city government is important, ask your councilperson – WHAT ARE THE PROJECTED ANNUAL OPERATING EXPENSES FOR THE PROPOSED ICE ARENA? Is it possible the City Council would pull out all the stops to build a multi-million dollar facility without having completed a pro forma Annual Operating Budget? No way – that would be an insanely irresponsible blunder! Ask for a printout on city letterhead…
Daryl
