Fate of event center up to voters

• Event Center drawing

The proposed, 18,125-square-foot community center complex would include two to five meeting rooms, a wedding park and a kitchen area that could be utilized by caterers. (SUBMITTED GRAPHIC)

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — Proponents say the proposed 18,125-square-foot community center complex would make Worthington the go-to place for meetings and events, bringing more revenue to those businesses already established. Others question the necessity of such a facility, saying current venues are adequate.

But all residents will have their say Nov. 4, when they vote on whether to fund construction of the complex through a half-cent local sales tax. The tax would also pay for renovations to Memorial Auditorium.

The estimated $3.5 million complex would feature two to five meeting rooms, seating for 400 people, a staging area and a wedding park for photographs. A catering kitchen within the staging area would include sinks and hot storage capabilities.

City alderman Lyle Ten Haken said the city has lacked “a gathering place for reasonable size groups” since the Coliseum Ballroom closed in 2001.

“We have seen weddings, anniversaries and celebrations of this community’s citizens as well as events of a larger nature leaving, or at least not coming to Worthington because we don’t have a place to house them,” he said.

Ken Moser, who heads the community center complex board, explained the importance of having a facility with a larger capacity. “We say we could put 125 of you at Christian Reformed Church … we could put 250 out at the country club but then it’s a matter of traveling if they want to have some interaction. Whereas if we had this facility we could say ‘yes we can put you under one roof, we have hotels all around it … it’s close to all of our restaurants and service facilities.’”

If the referendum is passed, construction on the center could begin in 2009, though Moser said the layout is not yet set in stone.

“The plans that we have presently are adaptable, we’ve had some suggestions come from some folks, primarily … that there be more bathrooms,” he said. “As for expandability later down the road, if the response is great, there’s land all around that can be used,” he said of the proposed complex’s location in the Bioscience park, just northeast of where U.S. 59 and Interstate 90 intersect.

The space would be rented to businesses, organizations and families for a variety of events — Moser listed weddings, reunions, training seminars, presentations and larger scale conventions as among the facility’s possible functions.

Questions have been raised as to who would pay for the complex’s operating costs, but council members say money collected from the tax would strictly fund the construction of the facility, going only to the ‘bricks and mortar.’

All other operating costs would be paid by Ruhr Development through a contract with the city. Ruhr would be in charge of staffing, cleaning, maintaining and marketing the complex, and they would pay a portion of their rental revenue back to the city, to be put in a fund earmarked for building maintenance.

“They would do the bookings, they would be responsible for sweeping the floors, turning the lights off, responsible for the utilities for it,” said Moser, “The city’s responsibility would be … when the heating and cooling system would need to be replaced.”

Ruhr Development may also build a hotel (not funded by the tax) that would connect to the complex, and Moser said the project brings other opportunities for economic development as well.

“Knowing that there’s land around this that could be sold for additional private development …. It would increase potential of someone finding (it) attractive to build a restaurant or bar or strip mall or retail store,”

Ten Haken said funding the complex without the collection of the sales tax would prove difficult and likely stir up more controversy surrounding the use of hospital sale funds.

“We’ve been functioning under the pretense of trying to really not spend that money,” he explained, saying that the public is now calling for the complex to be funded through the same hospital proceeds they once urged council to preserve.

Additionally, he said passing up the chance to let non-residents contribute — it is estimated that 40 percent of tax collected would be from non-Worthington residents — would leave 100 percent of the project cost on Worthington taxpayers.

“We’re going to need to take a hard look at the need for a community center at that point,” Ten Haken said.

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