ELY – Discussions between the Independent School District 696 Board and the Ely Regional Community Complex concerning the construction of a recreational facility on the west end of the school campus progressed this week. School Board members decided they want to hear from members of the community before moving ahead and will hold a public forum at the end of next month.

School board member Scott Kellerman, who represents the school district on the ERCC executive board, suggested forming a sub-committee of at least two additional school board members to give the school a greater voice as facility details are formulated. “We need to go one way or the other and not just hold study session after study session,” Kellerman said.

Board chair Ray Marsnik concurred that the school board needs to make a decision on the district’s involvement in the project. “I would definitely like to have an open forum to give the people in the community an opportunity to voice their concerns for or against this complex,” he said.

Following a meeting last month, school board members submitted a list of questions and concerns to the ERCC board. The answers to those questions were returned and discussed Monday night, but some questions couldn’t be answered sufficiently because the project hasn’t moved along far enough to have answers yet.

School board member James Pointer noted that the public likely has those same questions.

School board member Rochelle Sjoberg added, “Our concern is either have (the regional complex) at the school location or not. If the location is not here, it doesn’t mean the project can’t go forward.”

Marsnik said the public forum in July should be a listening session because the board doesn’t have all the answers to likely concerns. “We don’t want a debate on this issue,” he said. “That could come at another time.”

Kellerman noted, “With those open forums, I probably don’t need to tell you this, but we need to keep in mind that if just 10 people show up who are all opposed, we represent a lot more people than just those 10 that show up.”

Sjoberg said she has heard comments from people in the community concerning the location of a public facility on school grounds and the funding of the facility. “From a taxpayer’s perspective, are they going to have a burden with the building going up, but at the same time, there are concerns with how much (financial) support we give opposed to our current priorities to our students,” she said.

School board member Tom Omerza stressed the need to move the project forward. “Jeff (Sundell) and crew have put a lot of time into trying to figure this out, and yes there are questions, but there is so much positive to it,” he said. “I would like to indicate to the ERCC that we are interested and we do want to move forward with finding specific answers to our questions, and part of that can be through a public forum.”

Marsnik agreed that the ERCC could be an asset to the community. “They took a big step forward with the ($5 million) donation just recently, but I want to go over one of my concerns involving the management and operation of this facility. I’ve been very nervous about this ever since it came up.”

A document from the ERCC board outlining answers to the school board’s questions said, “While memberships and user fees will pay for the majority of the ongoing operational expense, we believe there will be an annual operational funding shortfall that will need to be made up in other ways.”

A list of opportunities for capital financing and meeting ongoing operational costs includes funding from the school district, along with at least six other sources.

“This makes me rather nervous,” Marsnik said. “We basically shut down a pool, and we tore down a gym, because we could not afford the operational costs of these facilities. Back in 2006 we were in dire straits because of finances.”

He noted that the school district levies $70,000 to operate the ice arena, and is still paying on the new floor installed several years ago. “There are only two ice arenas in the entire state of Minnesota that are owned by school districts: Ely and International Falls.”

“I just don’t know if we are going to be able to help these people out financially,” Marsnik said. “This and other questions are going to have to be answered before we make any decisions.”

ERCC founder Jeff Sundell was asked to comment. “No one at this point has asked for money from the school district, nor do we intend to at this point,” he said. “We don’t even know long term if we would. We have to leave a lot on the table at this point. We don’t even know how big the gym would be. Would the school district be willing to have user fees? We are at this impasse until we can get together and sit down at a more informal setting. We haven’t really planned to ask the school district for money, nor have we planned to ask the school district to manage it. At this point, the proximity (of the facility) is the most important part. We need to know that you are favorable to the idea about putting (the facility) here if things work out. At some point, if it becomes too big of an issue, we will gladly move on. We don’t want to burden the school distract at all. You are not on our radar for funding.”

Marsnik will ask for, or appoint, two school board members to sit on an ERCC sub-committee at the board’s regular business meeting on July 10.

A listening session for residents of the school district will be held on Monday, July 24 in the high school media center. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m.

“By August or September, we can definitely have a decision as to location (of the ERCC facility),” Marsnik said.