by Jim Boyle
Editor
Superintendent Mark Bezek came to Monday’s Elk River Area School Board meeting with an update on proposed athletic fields in Otsego and a recommendation to proceed with a project.
Members of the Elk River Area School Board, however, said not so fast.
Bezek wasn’t asking for a vote that night, but School Board Chairwoman Jane Bunting made it clear the School Board would take a closer look at the district’s overall plans for capital budget and also explore if there would be any options to phase the project in without having to commit nearly $500,000 all at once.
School Board Member Sue Farber agreed it would be good to take a look, but she also noted the project has been left hanging the entire time she has been on board since first getting elected.
“It gets brought up and put on the back burner every time,” she said.
Bezek laid out a case that this project — which started out at $50,000 for irrigation and mushroomed in size and scope upon closer review — makes sense to tackle now.
But he also defended his staff for doing due diligence on it throughout the years. The project was first talked about before he became superintendent and several business managers for the school district have had their hands on it.
“We have a very good relationship with many of our municipalities,” Bezek said. “Some are not as easy to work with. I don’t want our people to take a hit when they have not been the easiest to work with. It takes two sides to make things work.”
Greg Hein, the most recent executive director of business services to speak to the project, told members of the School Board $50,000 had been written into a capital budget plan but has never made it onto a capital improvement plan.
He said it had been talked about at the building level, but once the price of the project shot up it didn’t stay there and subsequently has languished.
A civil engineer has come up with a plan for reorienting one of the fields to make it easier to maintain the fields. There will be grading needed to do that and one field will have to be made from scratch. There are also plans for a paved trail and green space for soccer and lacrosse games.
Hein recommended that the district go back to the Otsego city officials and hammer out the details of a joint partnership that would highlight what the district is investing in, who would maintain it and who would schedule it for use.
Hein said the district’s grounds crews are staffed razor thin, and he would like to see Otsego maintain the fields as has been suggested.
“That could be their contribution,” Hein said. “Otsego offered to do the scheduling, but that would not be wise.”
Another expense will be an increased water bill from the proposed sprinkling system for the fields and the areas leading up to the school that are already watered in the summer and look typical of other schools throughout the school district.
The field space is another story.
“In the depths of summer this area we’re talking about looks more like death valley than a lush, green watered prairie,” Bezek said. “My recommendation is to go forward. I think its a good investment.”
Bezek said the district has several ways it could fund the project, and it will help the school’s physical education program and will serve the community.
One of the sources is a $2.1 million in the capital fund balance that will continue to be fed. Bezek said in the years that have gone by, the school district has added a track in Zimmerman and put bleachers in Rogers.
“We haven’t invested in a project like this in Otsego,” he said.
The School Board will take the matter up at a 6 p.m. work session at the School District Office, 815 Highway 10, Elk River.