Fulton City Council members voted Tuesday to move forward on a much-anticipated recreation center project.
The lead-up to the vote drew passion from audience members and council members alike.
"Thank you for participating," Ward 1 Councilperson Valerie Sebacher said to the crowd. "I wish we could get this level of engagement at every meeting."
Of course, not every meeting involves a $8.89 million future rec center and an approximately $2.9 million six-field baseball/softball complex. The latter project was tabled while the city explores funding options for the recreation center.
Current plans put the new facility at the corner of East Eighth and State streets, in the southwest portion of Veterans Park. It is to include basketball and volleyball courts, a fitness center, a turf fieldhouse, classrooms and more.
Likewise, few city projects are backed by so many years of enthusiasm. In April 2016, Fulton residents voted to pass a half-cent sales tax to be used for Parks and Recreation projects. At the time, city officials proposed putting the tax toward three main projects: a community recreation center, a baseball field complex and a new municipal swimming pool.
That tax, intended to be the main funding source for this project, brought in $375,000 in 2016 and is projected to produce $420,000 in revenue in 2019.
Residents' enthusiasm for new recreation spaces stretches much further back than 2016. In 2007, a city-conducted survey to determine most-desired park facilities found an indoor recreation center at the top of the list. Of the 814 survey respondents, 58.8 percent said they wanted one.
Ward 2 Councilperson Jeff Stone said a center has been on the public wish list for even longer than that.
"We've been waiting 20 years for this," he said.
During its last meeting, the Fulton Parks and Recreation Advisory Board voted unanimously to recommend the two projects to the council. Wanda Jane Hall, a board member for more than 20 years, spoke up early in the meeting to voice support.
"I am here tonight to see if you'll begin another great project," she told council members.
She noted her pride in past examples of city projects: the construction of Fulton City Hall and, in 2010, the dog park. Hall is particularly enthusiastic about the baseball complex. She lives on Tennyson Road.
"It will be right in my front yard," she said. "I want to see that accomplished in my lifetime. I'd like to look out my window every morning and watch."
Funding
The winning bidder on the community center is Ashland-based River City Construction. The estimated cost is $8.89 million to construct the main building and banquet center.
The cost for furnishing the complex and installing an alarm system is estimated at an additional $220,000, according to a packet prepared by the Parks and Recreation Department.
Of the seven council members present, five voted to move forward on the recreation center. Ward 1's Ballard Simmons and Ward 2's Mary Rehklau voted against. Ward 4's Steve Moore was absent.
For Simmons, the sticking point was paying for the complex.
"We started with a $3.5 million recreation center," he said. "Now it's at $9-plus million. How are we going to pay for it?"
Simmons added he's concerned devoting all the sales tax revenue toward this one project will leave the department unable to complete any other highly desired projects for decades.
The Parks and Recreation packet lists a number of funding methods.
"I've listed 14 options," Parks and Recreation Director Clay Caswell said.
Factors at play include how much the sales tax brings in, whether Fulton taps into its cash reserves to fund a larger initial payment, whether the city makes an annual contribution from its capital improvement budget, and how many years the project is financed for.
Some proposed methods would affect the city's annual operating budget, while others would not.
Once the community center opens for business, space rental and resident memberships should help offset operating costs and contribute toward paying for the building, according to the packet.
City Council members will hold more intensive discussions on funding methods during future meetings.
Baseball complex
Council members voted to table discussion of the proposed baseball complex. That complex is to include four baseball fields, two softball fields, batting cages/hitting stations, and a concession and restroom building.
Caswell has said he hopes it will draw tournaments to Fulton, bringing in tourism dollars.
Finding a contractor to complete the whole project has been challenging - only one company bid to do so, for $6.5 million. Caswell speculated the project's complexity drove smaller contractors away.
"That one bid was not a valid bid," Caswell said.
He pointed to sky-high prices on several items on that bid, including $1.02 million for a concession stand, $648,000 for site excavation and $285,000 for a 30-by-40-foot park shelter.
"I wouldn't ask the council to spend $1 million on a concession stand," Caswell added.
If that project moves forward, city officials plan to bid it out in stages, using city manpower and equipment as much as possible. The first contract, which was up for a vote Tuesday before being tabled, was $303,827 with S and A Equipment and Builders of Fulton to move earth and level the site (less than half of what the whole-project bidder planned to charge).
"My staff can go out there and pour concrete for sidewalks," Caswell said.