HELP! I STILL Need Some Advice
I could still use some help. Some advice.
Last February the Rochester Youth Hockey Association (RYHA) came to the council proposing a fourth hockey arena for the Fairgrounds – Graham IV. They made a proposal and submitted rationale to support their proposal. Made a lot of sense then but they still had to get County Board approval and do other homework. Surprisingly, I hadn't heard from anyone speaking out against the proposal. They were offering to spend over 60% of their own money for something that would bring in revenue to the county and city for many years to come and would address some problems they'd recognized for several years.
Nothing much happened until a few weeks ago when they returned with a revised proposal and plan. Their request to the city of Rochester was the same – commit to $75,000 a year for 12 years ($900,000) towards the $5.3 million building.
That’s a lot of money but what were the benefits for this partnership between the County, City, and the Rochester Youth Hockey Association (RYHA)? What are the needs?
There’s a shortage of ice time for RYHA and High School teams. RYHA needs about 156 hours of ice time per week, Before the high school hockey season they have approximately 138 hours available for their 52 teams of boys and girls aged 4 to 18. After the school season they have on the average 94 hours of prime time available. Their teams skate at 5:30 am prior to the start of school and until 10:45 PM on school nights. The high schools start at 2:45 PM during 8th period and still do not have enough hours to provide every JV team with a regular proactive time.
Girls high school hockey cannot expand to 3 Varsity and/or a JV until additional weekday practice hours become available.
I have been a supporter of our Kiwanis’ fund raiser the Kiwanis/Wells Fargo Hockey Festival for the last 10 years and co-chair for the last 7. We have returned over $430,000 to deserving community and selected Kiwanis charities in the last 12 years. I attribute our success to the quality of competition our local hockey players provide – play that I attribute to their RYHA training – play that provides us with a waiting list of teams that want to participate in our tournament when they have other attractive venues to choose from. So, yes, favor supporting a proposal that would help our young men and women develop their hockey skills (and would help others from having to get up at 4:30 to take a son or daughter to practice).
I made this point at our November 7th Committee of the Whole meeting. Perhaps I shouldn't vote on this issue I mused.
The rest of the proposal is that this private organization, RYHA, would provide the funding for around 66% of the $5.3 million - $4 million – which would benefit the county and city for years to come. The city and county would commit 12 years of debt service at $75,000 per year each. Spending $900,000 over 12 years for a $5.3 million facility doesn't seem like a bad deal. There are additional revenues to be brought in by RYHA tournaments not possible today with economic benefits to Rochester proposed to be in the area of $1,000,000 per year, additional benefits to local economy , hotel taxes, sales tax etc. In addition there are dry season advantages for fixing the arena area on the fairgrounds.
The other day I heard that the County wants us (the City) to help back the bond needed for the project instead of doin it themselves. I don't even know if this is possible. Should we still go for it or not?
That’s the short form of the proposal we've been presented.
My problem is, well, I haven't had a cohesive presentation from the opposing side. If you're out there let me know. Let’s discuss the matter. I need your input to help me make a good decision. I know there are some of you opposing this proposal.
What I have received are a couple of e-mails with no supporting discussion about my stupidity for supporting this proposal. I agree that my openness at the COW in stating that anyone with a brain would support this proposal based on the facts I was given and my experience as mentioned earlier. This could have been taken and apparently was taken as a put down to those opposed to this proposal. I apologize for this. I’m pretty open and sometimes say my mind without being “politically correct”. I’ve only been in this political game 3 years and am still learning. One person did come to my Friday morning coffee at Grandma's Kitchen (7 to about 8:30 am) and we had a very good exchange about a lot of city related concerns. I appreciated his spending time with me.
I'd also been confronted with a threat to not vote for me and even work for anyone who opposes me should I support this dumb idea ... but I didn't get any facts to support the "smart" side of the argument.
So, those of you out there with strong feelings against this proposal – speak up! Where are you?
Give me some rationale to suppoort your position. I swear I’ll listen. I always have. I promised to do so when I ran for office and tried to do so for the last 3 years. If any of you who read this know someone who has rationale against this arena give them my number and have them get to me. We’ll have to make a decision in December.
I will make the best decision for our greatest good with your help – with the hope that those who threaten me will understand that if I decide in their favor I’m doing so because of the facts in their favor and not the threat and, vice versa, if I support the proposal the other way it’s also because of the facts and not to spite them.
Thanks,
Bob Nowicki --- 285-0295 bnowicki@ci.rochester.mn.us
Last February the Rochester Youth Hockey Association (RYHA) came to the council proposing a fourth hockey arena for the Fairgrounds – Graham IV. They made a proposal and submitted rationale to support their proposal. Made a lot of sense then but they still had to get County Board approval and do other homework. Surprisingly, I hadn't heard from anyone speaking out against the proposal. They were offering to spend over 60% of their own money for something that would bring in revenue to the county and city for many years to come and would address some problems they'd recognized for several years.
Nothing much happened until a few weeks ago when they returned with a revised proposal and plan. Their request to the city of Rochester was the same – commit to $75,000 a year for 12 years ($900,000) towards the $5.3 million building.
That’s a lot of money but what were the benefits for this partnership between the County, City, and the Rochester Youth Hockey Association (RYHA)? What are the needs?
There’s a shortage of ice time for RYHA and High School teams. RYHA needs about 156 hours of ice time per week, Before the high school hockey season they have approximately 138 hours available for their 52 teams of boys and girls aged 4 to 18. After the school season they have on the average 94 hours of prime time available. Their teams skate at 5:30 am prior to the start of school and until 10:45 PM on school nights. The high schools start at 2:45 PM during 8th period and still do not have enough hours to provide every JV team with a regular proactive time.
Girls high school hockey cannot expand to 3 Varsity and/or a JV until additional weekday practice hours become available.
I have been a supporter of our Kiwanis’ fund raiser the Kiwanis/Wells Fargo Hockey Festival for the last 10 years and co-chair for the last 7. We have returned over $430,000 to deserving community and selected Kiwanis charities in the last 12 years. I attribute our success to the quality of competition our local hockey players provide – play that I attribute to their RYHA training – play that provides us with a waiting list of teams that want to participate in our tournament when they have other attractive venues to choose from. So, yes, favor supporting a proposal that would help our young men and women develop their hockey skills (and would help others from having to get up at 4:30 to take a son or daughter to practice).
I made this point at our November 7th Committee of the Whole meeting. Perhaps I shouldn't vote on this issue I mused.
The rest of the proposal is that this private organization, RYHA, would provide the funding for around 66% of the $5.3 million - $4 million – which would benefit the county and city for years to come. The city and county would commit 12 years of debt service at $75,000 per year each. Spending $900,000 over 12 years for a $5.3 million facility doesn't seem like a bad deal. There are additional revenues to be brought in by RYHA tournaments not possible today with economic benefits to Rochester proposed to be in the area of $1,000,000 per year, additional benefits to local economy , hotel taxes, sales tax etc. In addition there are dry season advantages for fixing the arena area on the fairgrounds.
The other day I heard that the County wants us (the City) to help back the bond needed for the project instead of doin it themselves. I don't even know if this is possible. Should we still go for it or not?
That’s the short form of the proposal we've been presented.
My problem is, well, I haven't had a cohesive presentation from the opposing side. If you're out there let me know. Let’s discuss the matter. I need your input to help me make a good decision. I know there are some of you opposing this proposal.
What I have received are a couple of e-mails with no supporting discussion about my stupidity for supporting this proposal. I agree that my openness at the COW in stating that anyone with a brain would support this proposal based on the facts I was given and my experience as mentioned earlier. This could have been taken and apparently was taken as a put down to those opposed to this proposal. I apologize for this. I’m pretty open and sometimes say my mind without being “politically correct”. I’ve only been in this political game 3 years and am still learning. One person did come to my Friday morning coffee at Grandma's Kitchen (7 to about 8:30 am) and we had a very good exchange about a lot of city related concerns. I appreciated his spending time with me.
I'd also been confronted with a threat to not vote for me and even work for anyone who opposes me should I support this dumb idea ... but I didn't get any facts to support the "smart" side of the argument.
So, those of you out there with strong feelings against this proposal – speak up! Where are you?
Give me some rationale to suppoort your position. I swear I’ll listen. I always have. I promised to do so when I ran for office and tried to do so for the last 3 years. If any of you who read this know someone who has rationale against this arena give them my number and have them get to me. We’ll have to make a decision in December.
I will make the best decision for our greatest good with your help – with the hope that those who threaten me will understand that if I decide in their favor I’m doing so because of the facts in their favor and not the threat and, vice versa, if I support the proposal the other way it’s also because of the facts and not to spite them.
Thanks,
Bob Nowicki --- 285-0295 bnowicki@ci.rochester.mn.us
posted by Bob Nowicki | 3:28 PM
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