Community bowl tops list

Copy of Minot Daily News Article (link)

By JILL SCHRAMM, Staff Writer jschramm@ndweb.com

A community bowl tops the list of new facilities that a review committee says Minot needs to move forward on.

The city of Minot on Friday released a priority ranking of proposed facilities, drafted by its Community Facilities Ad Hoc Committee. Committee members representing 24 community organizations cast ballots, tallied over this past week.

Pat McNally, activities director at Minot Public Schools, and Rick Hedberg, athletic director at Minot State University, were pleased with the committee's support for a community bowl.

"That was my hope in the whole process, that it would be first," Hedberg said. "It is a definite need. As a community we need to decide if we want to compete with the three other major cities for state events."

The two schools had proposed the bowl because both have stadiums in need of repair. A community bowl would enable the two to come together and build a single stadium.

The project could go beyond a stadium to be enclosed and provide facilities for other sports or community recreation. A so-called super community bowl could cost around $5 million.

"What has to happen is we have to sit down and talk about what we can do," McNally said. "If all we can do is fix the football field and the bleachers, then I guess that's what we will have to do. If we can do a super facility, it would be nice."

Mayor Curt Zimbelman has said he would form another committee to delve into the details if the committee deems a community bowl a priority.

Zimbelman said Friday that he is pleased that the committee moved quickly over the past two months on his request to draft a priority list.

"It helps give the community some direction as to what we need to be working toward," he said.

Rod Romine, who chaired the committee, said the final rankings showed a diversity of thought, from an interest in quality of life to wanting to promote tourism. The rankings also showed that the community is aware of the need for better sporting facilities both for competitions and to enhance recreation opportunities for residents, he said.

A 50-meter swimming pool ranked second on the list, followed by a new baseball facility.

"I am just thrilled that they found that as a top priority," Connie Feist said of the pool ranking.

With the support of local swim clubs, Feist, a member of the Minot Family YMCA board, proposed the committee consider a pool addition to the YMCA that would have spectator seating. The location would enable competition events to take advantage of the Y's current pool for warmup. The Y's aquatic staff also could maintain the new facility.

The next step is to bring swim groups together to talk about how to make the project happen, Feist said. The preliminary cost estimate is more than $4 million.

Supporters of a baseball facility on Minot's west edge already are going forward with a facility estimated to cost $45,000 to $100,000.

A capital fund drive for the Souris River Botanical Conservatory also is under way to raise the first $1 million toward what could eventually be a $15 million facility. The conservatory ranked fourth on the list.

Park and State Fair improvements came in next, with county and school buildings toward the end of the list.

Zimbelman said his sense was that the committee wanted to place emphasis on facilities outside of government, which already benefits from taxes.

"The committee just looked at it as things that we as a community, not a governmental entity, should be doing," he said. "They were looking more at things within the community that would make us a better community. Tourism and bringing dollars into the community was a big part of what gave the direction."