FAIRMONT– A community center design work session was held in council chambers at Fairmont City Hall on Wednesday evening. Parties involved included the Fairmont City Council and Fairmont Area Community Center Foundation. Some representatives of companies slated for the project were also present to speak about it.

John Kasper, a member of the Foundation, opened the work session by saying one of the purposes of it was to gain the council’s endorsement and vote at the Nov. 13 council meting to build the facility as re-designed and re-estimated. Other key areas covered during the work session were the final design and updated project cost and financials.

A public joint work session between the key stakeholders hadn’t been held since May and on Wednesday Kasper touched on some of the work the Foundation has been doing behind the scenes since then, which has involved hiring Tegra as the owner’s representative on the project and hiring a new construction manger, RJM. The council previously had Kraus-Anderson pinned down as the construction manger for the project.

Kasper said that in addition to that, they’ve been working on finalizing the design, which has involved talking to a variety of people including the design team, members of the Fairmont Area School District and the city of Fairmont. Based on the design, he said they’ve also updated the cost and budget, which has been an “aggressive” thing to do.

“We’ve been charged with making sure this doesn’t become the Taj Mahal, so right-sizing this project based on the funds available has been our task,” Kasper said.

Finally, he said they have continued to pursue financing, which includes going after a new market tax credit as well as raising funds from the broader community.

“A big part of this, too, is planting a flag and making sure that we are moving toward an end goal. We’ve developed an aggressive timeframe the gets us beginning construction in 2024 and wrapping up construction hopefully in 2025,” Kasper said.

Amy Long, another member of the Foundation, spoke about how they reached the final schematic design. Long noted that back in June the Foundation received the final conceptual design and has since worked on getting to the schematic design based on input from a number of groups including the YMCA, the school district and Fairmont Youth Hockey Association.

She said a few key considerations have been a part of reaching the final design, which, like Kasper said, have included working with their budget.

“We also spent a lot of time talking about how we would use the space. With the operator’s lens, partnering with the YMCA to work through if a space is multi-purpose or dedicated and what we would envision the space to be used for,” Long said.

She said in addition to programing, they’ve also considered future operations and long-term sustainability of the facility.

“We want to ensure that we are building an endurable, value-added building for our community,” she said.

Adam Davidson of JLG, the architect on the project, went over the design update and specific floor plans for the community center. He also talked about the benefits of the site (along Johnson Street) as well as plans to do a study on traffic and safety.

As for the floor plan, Davidson shared details about the ground floor, which includes multi-purpose rooms, a party room, auditorium and a gym of 10,600 sq. ft. which also has bleachers. The ground floor also includes a natatorium of 7.400 sq. ft. which includes a lap pool and a zero depth entry pool with some water features.

Council Member Michele Miller asked whether the designated child watch/multipurpose room could be turned into a day care space if needed. Davidson said at this point in time it wouldn’t be daycare, but child watch available for a few hours.

Miller also asked about the size of the pool, which she said looks no bigger than what Best Western has. She asked whether competition swim is still on the table.

Long said that they have had conversations with the school district, which said that there is no plan for a high school level competition team. However, she said that they have had conversations with the YMCA about a potential to bring in an in-house or rec swim team.

“We’ve had to keep in mind our budget. Community needs versus wants. We really feel that this is a good option for us,” Long said.

Moving to the second floor, Davidson touched on the plans for a fitness area totaled at 3,500 sq. ft. which features a running track and group fitness room.

Council Member Jay Maynard asked a question about the square footage of the facility, specially for the fitness area.

“There’s been a lot of discussion in the community about the fitness area and previous considerations of this design have fluctuated anywhere between 6,000 and 11,000 sq. ft. and now we’re down to 3,500 and I do want to make sure that’s sufficient for the programming, but I also think it should be noted… that 5,000 sq. ft. is the line for some folks to consider the maximum acceptable for this community center… and with that I hope the people that have been unhappy with a larger size… will say they’re happy,” Maynard said.

Council Member Randy Lubenow returned to the question about daycare. He asked whether there’s an estimated cost to add in a designated daycare area.

“Is it $500,000 or $5 million? What do we do with the code to make that an option?” he asked.

Long spoke about the difference between daycare and child watch, as well as before/after school programming. She said they have never been asked to support a daycare center in the facility and said they don’t have the budget to do so. However, she said they have had conversation with the YMCA, school district and Lakeview Methodist Health Care Center and Building Blocks about addressing those concerns.

Miller said that in past conversations they’ve spoken about the possibility of hosting car shows or home shows inside the community center. She asked whether the facility was designed to open up for that.

“Right now, we don’t have an overhead door to accommodate or bring in such a thing,” Davidson said.

In addressing questions about the door, which came from Miller and Lubenow, Kasper said that they’ve been very diligent about keeping the project scope contained so that it’s affordable.

“That’s why, yes there was an earlier version, but there has to be a point where we have to say ‘no’ unless there’s some way the city is going to help provide money to do this,” Kasper said.

Next, a financial update was provided. Kasper said that based on the design presented, the current updated construction cost is a little over $21.5 million. The updated total project cost is a little over $26.5 million.

“In terms of new market tax credit, that is a tremendous opportunity for the city… they are very optimistic that there’s a high likelihood of $3.7 million or higher to get in project funds,” Kasper said.

However, he said the critical aspect of that is timing which is why it’s important that the project moves forward in a timely manner and that the project is shovel ready by spring of 2024.

“I think what’s more exciting to talk about is that some incremental donations have been provided for this project. Tom Rosen, he and his family have set aside $2 million in incremental monies on top of their existing donation to go toward this project. It’s structured as a matching gift,” Kasper said.

Maynard addressed some things that were said. He noted that while the city council had $12.6 million (raised in local option sales tax) set aside for the community city, it took $1.9 million out of that to be used for mechanicals for the ice arena.

“That number is not the entire shortfall. According to the sheet here, we’re not $1.9 million short, we’re $3.9 million short,” Maynard said.

He said he would like to hear what the Foundation thinks the prospects for raising the needed funds are.

“We believe the prospects are very good. We have run into two hurdles. The people that have given to date have really been those people that see the vision… the two hurdles we have are, what does it look like and how much does it cost,” Kasper said.

He said that after Wednesday’s meeting, they have an updated design and cost and thus renewed effort to go into the community and reach the people who have been waiting for answers.

Brandon Edmundson, another member of the Foundation, went over some miscellaneous items, including agreements with the YMCA, overall project timing and programming.

“One of the line items in the original memo is we would bring you a design… now we’re presenting it to you to get your feedback on it and we would hope we could get a vote on it at the next council meeting in November so we can continue forward with fundraising and through the rest of this process,” Edmundson said.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the council brought up concerns about rushing a decision at the Nov. 13 meeting. Fairmont’s interim city administrator, Jeff O’Neil, said that the council will need time to review the contracts/agreements supporting the expense and operations, which he said are complex.

“I speculated that there might be a need for a workshop just to go through those terms so everyone can be comfortable and secure in everything related to the relationship,” O’Neil said.

Edmundson said he would like to move as quickly as possible, but only when everyone is comfortable.

Kasper said that it’s crucial that they get approval of the design at the next council meeting so that they can keep moving forward with the timelines laid out.