Board rejects YMCA joint parking lot

On a 4-to-2 split vote, the Brainerd School Board on Monday decided against the construction of a joint parking lot with the Brainerd Family YMCA.

Instead, the school district will build a 55-stall lot on half of its existing ball field located southeast of Washington Educational Services Building.

The move meant the board rejected an earlier recommendation made by the school board facilities committee and reinstated the district's original plan to pave the field. Board members Kent Montgomery and Lew Hudson voted in favor of the joint parking lot with the YMCA on Monday.

The district is being forced to construct a parking lot at Washington by the end of the year by the city of Brainerd, which is enforcing a 2005 conditional-use permit the district obtained during the building's remodeling.

Steve Lund, director of business services, said the adjusted numbers to create the joint 45-space parking lot between the YMCA and Washington reflected a 15 percent increase over initial estimates, which was still about $100,000 over the cost to pave the ball field.

Lund said the total cost of the joint parking lot, including properties already owned by the district and YMCA, would be $651,000, with $276,500 to be paid by the school district and $72,000 by the YMCA. The cost to pave half the ball field on the southeast side of the building is $158,900.

Mark Ronnei, a member of the community budget committee, told the board that the committee unanimously recommended against the joint parking lot. He said that, in the future, if the board attempted to ask voters for another operating levy referendum, the district needs a record of "fiscal prudence" and the parking lot issue would not reflect this.

"It's not that the parking lot is a terrible idea, we feel it isn't the right idea at this particular time," he said. "We felt the benefit to the school district is minimal compared to other places where the money could be spent."

"It's a long-term vision versus a short-term fix," Randy Klinger, YMCA executive director, told the board. "Can we afford to do this now? Perhaps not. But can we afford not to do it? I know the decision you're going to make is based on the best decisions for the district as a whole. I will respect your decision, I will honor your decision and move on."

The board also accepted the bid for $158,900 from Anderson Brothers to construct the parking lot. The board also plans to ask the Brainerd City Council at its July 20 council meeting for a possible variance on additional parking spaces that may be required if the district opts in the future to again use Washington as a school. Superintendent Steve Razidlo said the district may have to construct more than 20 additional spaces if in the future the district reopens the building as a school.