OSKALOOSA — The penny has plenty of power, especially when it is being used to potentially fund a $24 million dollar community improvement project.
Oskaloosa City Council members went on record Monday night saying they would use part of the city’s Local Option Sales Tax to back the multi-million dollar YMCA/early childhood development project.
The city receives approximately $1.1 million annually from the tax, according to City Manager Michael Schrock. In recent years, the funds generated from the penny tax have been used for infrastructure improvements with a special emphasis on roadway repairs.
“There has been more concrete construction in Oskaloosa this year than the past 40 years,” said council member Tom Walling during discussion.
The council as a whole agreed that it has caught the attention of the community, which is pleased with the improvements being made and did not want the YMCA project to take away from continued roadway renovations.
“I’m hoping for as many partners as we can find,” said Walling, “so we can do this project and still continue with the roads,” he said.
During an Oskaloosa Community Schools Board of Directors meeting Tuesday night, members went on record saying they would support the funding of the project, which the district will utilize for both athletic and educational projects if built. The district has not put a price tag on the amount they can spend on the project, but Superintendent Russ Reiter explained, “The school will have additional restrictions on what we can spend our dollars on.
“That’s the one thing that is really holding us back on a commitment side because our statewide penny dollars can only be spent on certain
things,” said Reiter.
“We’re willing to spend the money and bring some additional dollars potentially, but we are, of all three entities, are more restricted by law. [However] we’ll do everything we can.”
Mahaska County Board of Supervisors have discussed using the approximately $800,000 it receives from the tax for the joint project but has yet to make a commitment. During an open input meeting earlier this year, rural community members came before the supervisors to express their support for the YMCA project as well as the construction of an Environmental Learning Center, which would display the mammoth bones found within the county.
The financially supportive entities will likely go into a 28E Agreement to take ownership of the project and contract a managing third party, according to board members.
“There is a general desire to make this thing work,” said Mayor Dave Krutzfeldt during discussion. “But there are a number of unknowns at this point. We need to start playing around with the recipe to see how we can get to that $24 million price tag.”
Board members Walling and Jason Van Zetten will work with a project steering committee to negotiate the amount of money each funding party would have to vow to contribute to make the project a reality.
“Are you comfortable starting at 70 percent or is 50 percent too high?” Van Zetten asked his peers. “I don’t want to sit here and waste my time [if it is]. My personal feeling is that the school district needs to be in on their part for about 60 percent of their penny. We gave them all of our penny in the past, and I’m not trying to rob the school, I’m just saying it’s got to start somewhere
“If we don’t start talking about it, then it’s going to go on forever and we don’t have time for that anymore, so I’m just saying this is the starting point,” he added.
“I’m in for half,” replied Walling, beginning the funding conversation which will continue over the course of the next few months.
Council members must finalize ballot language by the end of January and give it to the supervisors for review by Feb. 9, 2016. The item will be voted on next May, according to the mayor.
“By the end of January we need to be able to come to some sort of agreement as to what we think the funding of this thing could be, so the clock starts ticking,” said Krutzfeldt before closing the work session.
Story provided by Danielle Lunsford
