BROOKINGS If the city were to acquire the Fifth Street Gym and that remains just a hypothetical at the moment the facility would need a minimum of $2.6 million in improvements just to keep it operational.
The gyms future was a main topic at Monday nights meeting of the citys Park & Recreation Board. Discussion primarily centered on the condition of the facility and whether the Brookings School District was willing to give it to the city.
The Fifth Street Gym is in such a great location, board member Doug Smith said. Its downtown. Its right by the (South Dakota) Childrens Museum. Its within walking distance of the (Brookings) Activity Center. Its within walking distance of the library, the city/county building, the courthouse. Its in a perfect spot. Kids can bike there year-round. Thats why Im so gung-ho about the Fifth Street Gym.
A can-do attitude permeated the meeting, but it was also tempered by financial expectations.
Parks, Recreation and Forestry Director Kristin Zimmerman said the $2.6 million estimate came after an inspection of the gym by Jared Thomas, the citys chief building official. The money would be needed for a whole list of items, including:
- Brick faade: $131,000
- EIFS material: $200,000
- ADA entrance: $42,000
- Interior/exterior doors and lighting: $155,000
- Roof membrane: $300,000
- Bathrooms (not ADA-compliant): $300,000
- Interior wall repair and repaint: $110,000
- Air handler: $1 million
- Vault pit: $20,000
- Sprinkler and fire alarm systems: $350,000
The total estimated cost adds up to $2,608,000. In other words, the city would have to open its wallet quite a bit and thats before you add in another $100,000 to $150,000 each year in operating costs.
Zimmerman said the biggest item on the list is the air handler basically, the Fifth Street Gym currently has no air conditioning.
That makes the floor really slippery in the summer, especially with the humidity, she said.
Oh, and if the city wants to repair or replace the gyms weathered floor? Well, tack some more dollars onto that $2.6 million estimate.
City Manager Paul Briseno pointed out that its up to the Park & Recreation Board to make recommendations to the City Council on what it would like to see done, and that includes changing priorities if needed.
There are a number of park projects that we could look at cutting, if thats something the park board would like to recommend, he said. I would be open to having a conversation with (the City Council) and making a recommendation if we could find some way to meet that $2.6 to $3 million. But then we do have to find out ways to make up that $100,000 to $150,000 a year operational expense.
Briseno said everyone wants to have indoor recreation, but the question is where to find the money for it. Regarding priorities, he used the city-owned Edgebrook Golf Course as an example.
We own that. We maintain it and take care of it. Theres a $2 million irrigation upgrade here in three years planned for that. The water source project of $800,000, Briseno said. You could recommend to (the City Council) not doing any of that.
We can always deprioritize things. Theres only so much money that the city has, and then its up to us as a group and this council to prioritize the needs of this community, he noted. Ideally it would be nice to have the Fifth Street Gym but we just have to make up the gap somehow, somewhere.
Briseno concluded, If were going to take over a facility, its critical that we make it run efficiently, but also that we put money aside to replace in the future.
As for taking over the gym, its, as said previously, a hypothetical. Still, Briseno said theres been conversations with the school district.
The discussion that we had was that they are interested in divesting themselves of the gym, he said. They do not have the money to upgrade it and they do not have the funds to give us the money to upgrade it.
Smith believes there are people in Brookings who would be willing to make sizable donations toward the Fifth Street Gym. He also brought up the topic of naming rights, including one for the building and another for a new floor in the gym if the floor winds up being replaced, both of which could generate income.
Briseno said such endeavors have occurred in the past for city facilities, including at Bob Shelden Field, where a group raised private funds for the artificial turf there.
If theres effort to raise those monies, I think it would be well-received, he said.
The possibility of an entirely new indoor recreation center was also raised as option other than revamping the Fifth Street Gym one that would include amenities such as a swimming pool, a walking track and basketball courts.
This number is going to scare you, but were looking at anywhere between $50 million and $70 million, Zimmerman said. We did some quick math and dont quote me on this one but it would be the equivalent, if we went out for a bond, it would be the equivalent of tripling peoples property taxes.
So, yeah, thats likely not going to happen anytime soon unless something major changes.
Theres also another factor in the mix that could affect fiscal matters beyond the Fifth Street Gym, and thats the outcome of Novembers vote regarding the possible repeal of the South Dakotas sales tax on groceries.
That could impact us as well, substantially, Briseno said. So thatll be something well have to consider as well as we make major recommendations to the City Council on facility investments and operational investments. It all comes out of the same pool at the end of the day.
The question there is whether a repeal of the states ability to collect sales tax on food would also affect the citys ability to collect certain taxes.
In closing, Smith stated plainly his reason for continued support for the city giving the Fifth Street Gym a chance keep contributing to the citys recreation needs.
Ive been on a quest ever since they took the Armory out of service to get some kind of indoor recreation space, Smith said. Every other city has a rec center. Well, I know thats not in the cards for Brookings we dont have that kind of revenue so I figure this is the next best thing that we can do to have indoor space.
Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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