May 29, 2008 - 04:08:02 CDT
The now defunct Missouri Valley Complex Authority may be seeing a revival of sorts as Burleigh County and the city of Bismarck consider the future of the fairgrounds.At Tuesday's city commission meeting, Burleigh commissioner Marlan Haakenson, who leads what remains of the authority, requested $25,000 from the Bismarck City Commission for fairground development.
While city commissioners were open to the request, they want to see the city have more say in what happens at the fairgrounds.
Just two years ago, the complex authority involved representatives from the county, city and Bismarck park district, each committing $25,000 annually to the operations of the fairgrounds, with the park district managing the facility. To a lesser extent, NDSU-Extension, 4-H and the Burleigh park board were involved with the complex.
But then, the Bismarck park district pulled out after failing to reach agreement with Burleigh County on management of the fairgrounds and other county-owned park properties. The city of Bismarck followed suit, leaving Burleigh County to deal with the property it owns.
This left fairground user groups in the lurch, particularly the rodeo organizations which are hosting a high school rodeo this weekend at the fairgrounds. Haakenson, along with Burleigh park board members and other user groups, started work on an arena, which will be in place in time for the rodeo.
The new fairground group put together a proposed budget of about $100,000, which Haakenson presented to the Bismarck City Commission as part of his request the city provide the $25,000 it had budgeted for the complex authority in 2008.
While many of the budget items are related to the arena, several others are not, such as a new access road to the motorcycle track ($40,000), removal of the old fairgrounds sign ($250), and fencing of the east property line ($1,500). Haakenson said the new group was trying to follow the fairground master plan as closely as possible.
Commissioners Dave Jensen and Sandi Tabor said some sort of agreement should be in place, including the creation of a new authority, before the city contributed to the projects.
"It seems like a joint powers agreement would be helpful," Tabor said. "It's my understanding there was a complex committee and it seemed that wasn't such a bad idea. It would allow the city to provide input. It's good to have the ability to talk on where the county is going with the facility. I'm not opposed to the request, but I think you should restructure the agreement and restructure the committee."
Tabor put her comments in the form of a motion, which was seconded by commissioner Connie Sprynczynatyk. She said Haakenson's request was "putting the cart before the horse."
Sprynczynatyk said that even though a master plan exists, they need to be revisited and often reformulated over the years. She said that faces change and plans often change direction.
"I remember the first master plan," Sprynczynatyk said. "It had so much stuff, I knew it would never be built. I couldn't vote for an expenditure until the complex authority were back in place."
Mayor John Warford also supported Tabor's motion to come up with a joint powers agreement and a new authority.
"I do feel the urgency. The fairgrounds have just been sitting out there and are not up to the standards of the city or county, or of any use," Warford said. "It's really important that we reform quickly. I support the city expending our dollars to assist it. I'd like to compliment Hawk; it had been sort of wallowing, and he took the initiative to get it back on track. But I'd like to see the process speed up a little bit."
Haakenson was asked to put together an agreement and plans to restructure an authority by the next meeting of the city commission. Commissioners noted that he could use the former joint powers agreement as a basis.
Haakenson said he'd make it work, even though he and the others working at the fairgrounds had been putting in a lot of volunteer time.
(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@bismarcktribune.com.)
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