Sedalia community center plans shelved

Sedalia officials announced Thursday the city will delay purchasing property for a proposed community center.

The Sedalia City Council cited economic and environmental concerns as the reason for the delay, according to a press release from the city. Until recently, Sedalia officials had been negotiating for the purchase of more than 15 acres of property owned by Union Pacific on East Broadway Boulevard.

“With the recent economic environment, funding the construction and operation of a community center could be a challenge for the city,” City Administrator Keith Riesberg said.

The Democrat’s Sarah Nail reported March 14 that consultants hired by the city to study the potential for a new community center, its amenities, location and costs estimated that constructing the center would cost about $20 million. Annual operating costs could run about $1.3 million, with $970,000 being covered by projected revenues from admission fees. That would leave a shortfall of about $410,000.

Late Sedalia Mayor Bob Wasson, a longtime supporter of the community center, said, “The one difficult thing about a community center is having the dedicated cash flow to keep it going.”

Riesberg said although no official vote was taken in closed session after Monday’s City Council meeting, members of the council reached a consensus that the money would be better spent on other capital improvement projects. 

Third Ward Councilman Bob Cross said there was no discussion Monday of when the city might revisit the community center proposal.

“There wasn’t much discussion about it (Monday), we just felt the sewer project was more important at this time,” Cross said.

Riesberg said the proposal will be tabled until the city’s capital improvement plan is updated, adding that the funds set aside for city projects which could have been used to fund the community center are now available to address sanitary issues with the sewer system.

“The capital funds anticipated for the community center project may well be needed to make sanitary sewer improvements to satisfy the terms of the recent sewer system consent order,” Riesberg said.

The city had been looking at the site of the former Sutherland’s Lumber facility on East Broadway Boulevard, which is now owned by Union Pacific. The site was identified in the 2008 Community Center Feasibility Study as the preferred site selected by community participants in the process. Since March 2008, city staff had been in negotiations with Union Pacific for the purchase of the property at a proposed price of $375,000 for more than 15 acres of land.

The city partnered with the Department of Natural Resources to perform a two-phase environmental investigation of the property, which identified areas of the site in need of remediation before it could be used for the community center.

Riesberg said he did not want to reveal the nature of the environmental issues that needed to be addressed without talking to Union Pacific representatives. However, the cost of the remediation efforts, coupled with the concern about overall funding for the project, led the City Council to abandon efforts to purchase the property.

“We can put this project on the shelf for now,” Mayor Elaine Horn stated in a release. “At a time when we’re able to move forward, the study will still be valid and ready to go. It is just not the right time to pursue a community center.”