The Wadena City Council said the city of Wadena would accept ownership of the Wadena Regional Wellness Center if a sufficient level of state bonding is approved and funded, and other funding is in place.
The wellness center committee is preparing for a meeting with Sen. Keith Langseth on Sept. 27 in Wadena when he comes to discuss a $7.5 million state bonding request.
Wellness center committee co-chairs John Paulson and Ann Pate attended the Wadena City Council meeting on Sept. 11 to ask the city to go on record about ownership of the facility if the project continues to move forward.
One of the concerns of the committee was that the city has never officially gone on record saying that it would own the community center if this process keeps moving forward, said Wadena City Administrator Brad Swenson.
He referenced city council minutes from June 4 when the committee asked for funding. Sen. Dan Skogen was present on June 4 and was asked a question about state funding and whether the city would need to have ownership, Swenson said. His answer was that the city is making the application so ultimately the city would need to own the facility in order to get the bonding money.
ADVERTISEMENT
During the discussion on Sept. 11, Mayor Wayne Wolden asked what the purpose of the council going on record was. He wondered what it would satisfy.
Swenson said the city representatives who will meet with Langseth might be asked "is the city on board with the project 100 percent? Do you own this property or are you going to own this property?"
The wellness center is currently owned by a nonprofit entity and the city of Wadena leases the facility. If the project moves forward and a transfer of ownership needed to take place, attorneys would need to be involved, Swenson said. But he said the project wasn't at that point yet.
"If we are going to be behind this project, we have to tonight, come out of here saying if there is a community center built, we will have ownership," said Councilman Pete Phillips.
The council wondered what would happen if the city received a lesser amount of money and if the project could still move forward.
"We've got to have a plan B," Wolden said.
Wolden said he has been told that not a lot of the bonding money in this next session will be dedicated to low priority projects.
Transportation, flood control, bridges -- that's where the bucks are going to go, he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
"They're going to ask 'what are you going to do if you get a lesser amount of funding?'" Wolden said. "What if we get $2 million, $3 million? Is there a scaled back project?"
The council agreed that whoever is presenting needs to be ready for that question.
"There's no guarantee for a second chance," Swenson said. "... we might get a couple, but we don't know that."
The council agreed to accept ownership under certain circumstances by passing a motion that read: "the city of Wadena will accept ownership of the new Wadena Regional Wellness Center, which would include the existing facility and property, if a sufficient level of state bonding in the upcoming state legislation session is approved and funded and the other necessary funding is put into place to show how the operating cost would be covered in a form acceptable to the Wadena City Council."
