Moving history

HARTINGTON – Hartington residents have been lucky, Mayor Mark Becker told a crowd of about 125 people Monday night.

The city of Hartington has had the use of a community center here for over 70 years now, without having to pay to maintain that facility, he said.

'Those days are about over,' he said during Monday's Town Hall meeting in the basement of the Hartington City Auditorium.

The historic Skylon Ballroom held its last roller skating event here Sunday. The facility will hold its final wedding dance in June.

The dance hall will be shut down after that, so it's owner, Roger Wortmann of Plumbing and Electric, can expand his business operations.

The Hartington City Council has been working on an idea for the past 18 months to move the Skylon to a location in the new Hartington business park, just west of where the dance hall currently sits.

The facility would then be expanded and turned into a true community center. Monday's meeting was designed to explain the proposal and the costs associated with it to area residents. Several drawings and preliminary plans were also available for people to look at and discuss.

'So far, we've got no money into this, only some time,' Becker said. Getting a new community center in Hartington won't be cheap though, he said.

Becker said preliminary estimates indicate it would cost about $1.5 million to move, renovate and expand the Skylon into a community center.

The cost of building a new community center would be at least $1 million more than that, he said. Similar facilities, such as Laurel's new community center, cost at least $4 million to build, he said.

The city would like to take out a 20-year bond to pay for the project. Current estimates indicate city residents would pay an additional $111 per $100,000 of assessed valuation to pay for the bond. That means, someone with a $200,000 home would pay an additional $222 per year in property taxes inorder to pay off the bond.

'This will only go forward if you want it, though,' Becker said. 'That's what this meeting is all about. We want to hear what you are thinking. We want to know if you think this is a good idea and if you want us to go forward with it or not.'

The project comes at a good time, since the city is close to paying off an old bond, Becker said. There are only two payments left on the bond that was taken out to build the Hartington Community Complex in 2004, he said.

A petition was placed at the back of the meeting room for city residents to sign if they wanted to see the project become reality.

In order to get the issue on the May 14 primary election ballot, the petition must have the valid signatures of at least 94 registered voters residing within the Hartington city limits. Since this project would be funded through the city of Hartington, and paid for by Hartington property owners, the signatures must come from people living inside the Hartington city limits, city clerk Brittni Benscoter said.

The signatures must be gathered and submitted to the County Clerk's office in time to have the signatures counted and validated prior to the March 1 deadline, Benscoter said.

This isn't the only big project the city needs to take on, Becker said. The city is also in need of a new city shop and maintenance facility for its vehicles and equipment. A petition to get that on the ballot is also being circulated.

The current city shop is in a building that is over 100 years old, Hartington City Utilities Superintendent Corey Kramer said.

It was originally built as a stable and then was used for several things before Cedar Knox Public Power District purchased it and turned it into its warehouse. The city of Hartington later purchased it and moved its city offices to the front of the building and put its shop in the back.

The city offices moved to a new location next to the Hartington Post Office in 2001 and the shop was expanded.

The current building is way too small and in terrible shape, Kramer said. 'It's in pretty rough shape,' Kramer said. The walls are held together by cable and its bat infested. It needs to be replaced.'

This is the first of a multi-part series. Another, more in-depth article will be published in next week's issue of the Cedar County News.