JACKSON COMMITTEE HEARS REPORT ON PERRY CIVIC CENTER

JACKSON -- The Multipurpose Building Feasibility Study Committee got some advice Thursday from someone who has been through what they are undertaking.

Francis Toohey of Perryville led a similar committee that laid the groundwork for a community center in Perry County. In November, Perry County voters approved a bond issue and one-and-a-half-cent sales tax to fund the project.

Toohey, in a presentation to the Jackson group at City Hall, said the Perry County effort focused first on finding out what the community most wanted in a multipurpose facility.

"We feel we've done what the people wanted," Toohey said. "After taking a survey we decided we were going to do what they thought was best, not what we thought was best."

A random phone survey developed by Southeast Missouri State University revealed the most popular items were an indoor pool, walking track, library and a performing arts center. The facility will include each of those items as well as racquetball courts, meeting rooms, an auditorium and an aerobics area.

The facility will cost an estimated $9.53 million. Of that amount, construction will cost $8.3 million and debt service $953,000 while miscellaneous costs make up the difference.

The city is donating several acres of Perryville City Park, resulting in a sizable savings for the project.

All but one-quarter cent of the sales tax will expire in 20 years or whenever the bonds are paid off, whichever is sooner. The remainder, along with user fees, will cover annual maintenance and operation.

Viable financing options proved limited, Toohey said.

"We never really considered anything else except for the sales tax," Toohey said. "It was the most fair."

The first phase of construction will involve enclosing the existing pool at City Park and will begin in September. The pool building, slated for completion in spring 1998, will have a retractable roof and walls for use during the summer. Construction of the rest of the facility will start around the same time, with completion projected for spring 1999.

The entire facility will be nearly 79,000 square feet.

There was very little opposition to the endeavor, Toohey said, and his committee encountered few stumbling blocks along the way.

"The only great opposition was from a few people who'd be opposed to most anything you'd propose," Toohey said.

The time between the completion of the interest survey and the bond issue vote was about 16 months.

Jackson Mayor Paul Sander, who appointed the study committee in January, gave the group a tentative time period of one year to complete its work.

Dale Rauh, committee chairman, told committee members to take their time and place more value on thoroughness than expediency.

"We have quite a bit of time ahead of us," Rauh said. "Don't get impatient thinking we will get this off the ground by the end of this year because we're not."

A subcommittee is beginning work on developing a survey to gather community input on what the building should include and how it should be paid for.

Several committee members said community feedback thus far has been positive. The main thing people want to know is what it will cost them.

With a bond issue for the Jackson School District last year and a possible bond issue for the city water system this summer, some wondered if voters would support another in the near future.

David Plassman, a former Centralia, Ill., resident who moved to Jackson a few years ago, said a $6 million recreational facility in his former hometown was built recently using private funds.

Two private donors agreed to provide half of the cost if city residents could raise the other half, which they did within six months.

The finance subcommittee will look into the viability of all funding options, including tax levies and private donations.

The full committee will next meet March 20.