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The first floor is projected to be dry for six months (March 15th to September 15th) and wet for six months (September 15th to March 15th). Wet floor activities include hockey, of course, and also figure skating, free skating, and planned adult skating. The ice sheet will be a National Hockey League sized floor, 85 by 200 feet. It will be home ice for the Holy Family Catholic High School and the Waconia High School. The City of Victoria will have control of ice time every day from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
In the summer months the first floor can be used for such events as antique shoes, Touch of Bavaria, floral shows, car shows, wedding receptions, rodeos, class reunions, tennis matches, tractor pulls, volleyball, and an unlimited number of other activities. It can become a regular full size gym for six months of the year. The place can be used for various fund-raisers as well as public service functions. Victoria doesn't have a similar space in the city.
The $5 million does not include a separate gymnasium at this time. It does include a finished walking track on ground level around the ice sheet.
Annual revenues, mainly from the sale of ice time, are projected to total $600,000 with annual operating expenses of $275,000. A total debt service of around $425,000 leaves about $100,000 to be recouped in some manner each year by the City of Victoria.
Mike Ayres said he sees this annual expenditure by the city as an investment for its residents. "It can be open by next September," he said. "It may be painful for the next five years, but after that they'll be talking about your leadership. You are elected because you're perceived to be smart and reasonable. Almost everything I read in Sue's paper is positive. We were deeply disappointed we couldn't bring you the Minnetonka arena. We will develop this for you at no charge, and always in a public forum. It would be a great community asset for you all."
Mayor Mary Meuwissen and Councilmember Richard Tieden believe that funding the annual expenditure of $100,000 is not a great risk for the city. "We've done this over and over again," said Mayor Mary. "We've committed hundreds and thousands of dollars. This is nothing new."
To Jim Paulsen, in reference to the city purchase of Laketown property a couple years ago, she said, "We've committed to spend $100,000 a year in Laketown. Did we raise taxes?" The answer was, "No."
"This isn't as scary as you're making it sound," continued the mayor. "It might sound like a lot, but don't be fooled. I'm not afraid to make this investment. I think the market is good for us. We'd be spend-ing it anyhow because the park needs bathrooms and all kinds of things, only we'd be spending it piecemeal and not getting the nice package. We need these things. We don't want a small conces-sion. We're trying to make this a real multi-purpose building."
Asked Councilmember Paulsen, "What happens to a city's reputation when it defaults?"
"It's not good," replied Dick Miller, senior vice president of Wells Fargo, who will be financing the project at a fixed rate for 15 years. "The city does have an obligation for that $90,000 on an annual basis ... or whatever that number is ... and you'd have to annually appropriate that amount."
Stated Mary Ippel, the city's bond counsel with Briggs and Morgan, "What you will have is a long term lease. There will be some pressure on you to not appropriate those dollars. You will have the legal right to not appropriate ... But bonds are purchased by investors who are betting the city will annually appropriate the necessary amount."
"In the event of a city's default," ex-plained Mary Ippel, "the bondholders have a right to take the building and operate it. The bondholders would have a right to access the building. You would need to release some land for parking use."
The actual pad upon which the facility is to be built will be made debt free, in advance, by the City of Victoria. Stated Mayor Mary, "We'd be paying off a debt of $33,000 an acre on the building pad. We need about a hundred grand for that." That "hundred grand" is not new money nor additional expense, because the park has to be paid for at some point anyhow. It's a cash-timing issue related to the new construction at the park.
Councilmember Jerry Bohn was concerned with cost of the site work necessary to make the facility possible. "Site work is an additional cost that has been estimated at $500,000 to $1 million," he said.
Mike Ayres stated that Terry Hart-man of Victoria has volunteered to help drive down site work cost and that there is money in the budget to take care of some of the site work. "Site work" includes parking lots on the north and south sides of the building, utilities, sidewalks, land-scaping, lighting, grading, and other out-door expense. In a couple weeks, soil borings will be completed and cost of site work can be estimated more accurately.
Councilmember Bohn also noted the difference between the facility supported last year for Victoria and the facility proposed to be built this year. "Nobody else is kicking in today," he said. "There's some significant risk here. There's some very high risk in the operat-ing of this. And we don't have a benefac-tor." The arena at Minnetonka is named the Pagel Activity Center after the bene-factor Jack Pagel who bought the naming rights.
Said Mayor Mary, "The hockey people are footing a big portion of the bill for Victoria. Hockey generates the income for the other activities."
Stated Susie Blake, who is with Chaska Hockey, "We are more than will-ing to pay the $175 for ice time and this is a built-in fundraiser for you. It's attrac-tive to an association such as us. We are putting money into this through the $175. We have 420 kids in the program and are seeing 17% growth every year. Almost 200 of those kids are ages 6 and under today. The $175/hour is not a lot to invest for the kids of the future."
Chaska Community Hockey Associ-ation, Holy Family Catholic High School, Minnetonka Youth Hockey Association, and Waconia Hockey Association have signed seven-year agreements to purchase Victoria ice time. Waconia has an "out" after five years because that group has hopes of getting its own arena.
Said Councilmember Dave Lindgren, "Without a referendum, how do we know what the Victoria citizens want? That's what I'm concerned about. I don't want to get the city in a bind. I'd certainly like to know how they feel about this."
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