Supporters Lay Out Initial Plans For Sauk Rapids Field House

SAUK RAPIDS - Plans for a new field house in Sauk Rapids continue to slowly take shape. The "Sauk Rapids Community Center Advocates" made a formal presentation to the city council tonight (Monday). The council didn't commit to anything, but instructed the committee to continue to work on the project.

It's expected the city would pay for the $6.7 million cost to build it using half-cent sales tax dollars. The school district would likely pay for the day-to-day operational costs of the field house.

Group spokesman Randy Krebs says the biggest hurdle right now is figuring out how to pay for the upkeep, or maintenance, of the building. He says half-cent sales tax dollars are one option.

We've also talked about fundraising and using pledges from the various associations that would be the heavy users of it. We're looking into potential naming rights or sponorships...

Mark Kotcho says, even though you may not have heard a lot about it, they've been meeting for a little over two years.

We're kind of jealous when we do see others doing other work, and we've been doing this for over two years. So, we were planning for something, it may not be as public as the other ones, but we certainly want to build it as quick as we could.

St. Cloud, Sartell, and St.Joseph are all working on their own community center type facilities. Kotcho says Sauk Rapids' field house would be most similar to what Foley has. He says it would not be an ice rink, there won't be a pool or aquatic facility, and no weight room in the initial phase.

Krebs says they don't have an official timeline yet, but he'd like to have it open by the year 2020. No site has been selected either.