By Brian L. Gray

Almost a full year after the Mandan City Commission first offered to sell the Community Center, and dozens of meetings held to discuss possible options, the Mandan School Board on Tuesday evening agreed to take over the facility.

The issue was returned after a motion to purchase the Community Center was met with a 4-4 split at the board’s previous meeting on Sept. 14, ending in a defeat. At the end of the meeting the issue was brought back up, with the intent to reconsider the action.

On Tuesday the board voted 7-1 in favor of purchasing the Community Center for $1 from the city. Board member Leland Fleischer was the only member to vote against the motion; board member Karen Johner was not present at the meeting. She had previously voted against the purchase on Sept. 14.

The availability of the Community Center came when the city commission decided to sell the facility last February. The Mandan Park District originally expressed interest, but soon after the school board jumped in and began considering its purchase.

With the sale taking place, the school district will take over the facility in June 2010, but will continue to co-manage the swimming pool portion with the park district.

Fleischer said he believed the district would be better off investing in the former junior high school, now the Great Plains Academy. He said the Community Center offers 41,000 square feet of space, where the GPA would provide about 62,500 square feet. He added that the west wing of the GPA was built in 1977, which is newer than the Community Center, and was renovated a few years back.

“We have 600,000 from the bond issue that can be used, and it appears to me from all our proposals that we would need a slight tax increase, and that concerns me,” Fleischer said.

Board member Tim Tausend said he believes with the district’s current budget, it would be possible to fund the renovation, “whether we do it in two phases or at once.”

Board member Tim Rector said he is overwhelmingly in favor of not wasting money at the GPA, and the overall price to fix the facility doesn’t justify the space requirements for the Community Center.

The school board will now begin discussing what the future has in store for the Community Center. Estimated costs to renovate the facility are running at $2.2 million.

The school district has about $1.3 million in stimulus funds that could be used to purchase the facility, in addition to money that could come in if both the GPA and Central Administrative Building were sold.

School Board President Kirsten Baesler said figuring out how to fund the renovation will be the next step. “We need to purchase this without raising taxes, and will need to take a hard look at the numbers,” she said.

Baesler said it was in the students’ best interest that the Community Center should be owned by the school district. “The Community Center is already being used by every single student, as swimming is a required class by every freshman. If it was sold to a private owner, it could be shut off to students,” she said.

In other business, the board decided to keep the selling price for the CAB building at $420,000.

Superintendent Wilfred Volesky said there are two viable parties interested in purchasing the building.

One entity expressing interest is a church group from Sioux Falls, S.D., who is planning to move its offices into the Mandan-Bismarck area.

The group originally planned for a Bismarck move, but has since considered a Mandan location after learning about the CAB building. “At this point, they have not secured a facility at this time in the area,” Volesky said.

The other entity is another church group from Grand Forks, who is also interested in adding a nursing facility.

The board also heard concerns from the community about the school district’s 6 percent budget increase in the upcoming year.

Resident Harvey Christian said in the midst of the recession, and many businesses and organizations stabilizing its budgets, he didn’t see why the board had called for an increase.

“What is the justification? You’re dealing with people like me, who are on fixed incomes, who may or may not get a raise, and the city, school, park and county keep increasing its budgets and spending more and more. You should be cutting expenses instead of increasing your budget,” Christian said.

Resident Wayne Papke said the school board should keep in mind the following year, when stimulus money may not be available. He cited a figure from the city finance department, stating that sales tax receipts this year through July 31 have decreased by 4.9 percent in Mandan.

“When home valuations decline and revenue sources start to shrink, the outlook will be a tough one on your parts in the upcoming years,” Papke said.

The budget will be finalized at the board’s next meeting, scheduled for Monday Oct. 5.