City Council Cancels Contracts For St. Joseph Community Center

ST. JOSEPH (WJON News) -- A community center in St. Joseph has been the vision of many residents for years, but we now know that won't be happening anytime soon.

During Monday night's city council meeting, the council voted unanimously to cancel five separate contracts related to he project. The contracts included the lease agreement with the St. Cloud Area YMCA, the contract with Ruis Consulting for fundraising efforts, and the contract with HMA Architects.

Mayor Adam Scepaniak says the council decided the city was still too far away from its fundraising goal to move forward with the project. He says the economy isn't great right now, and raising the money didn't seem likely.

The original plan was to raise $24 million to build a facility similar to the YMCA in St. Cloud. A revised plan included a three-phase approach, but they didn't raise enough money to even start phase one. He says they still needed $3.5 million to do phase one. The council wasn't willing to take a drastic measure like levying a tax to cover the gap.

Scepaniak says the city will have to decide how to legally return the money that had already been raised, including $4 million in state bonding money and $3 1/2 million from individuals.