Dream still lives for Prospect Meadows ball complex

Prospect Meadows, the 17-field baseball and softball complex proposed at Highway 13 and County Home Road, is seeking a $2.8 million Community Attraction and Tourism grant through the state's Vision Iowa Program.

Jack Roeder, president of Prospect Meadows, said Monday the state grant would help the project complete its public and private fundraising campaign so construction on the complex can begin in 2016.

The deadline for filing an application for a CAT grant for the new round of funding is Thursday. Roeder said Prospect Meadows will have its application in by then.

The Linn County Board of Supervisors, a major supporter of the project along with the city of Marion, agreed Monday to send a letter to the Vision Iowa Program in support of Prospect Meadows' application.

Jessica O'Riley, tourism communications manager at the Iowa Economic Development Authority, said the Iowa Vision Iowa's CAT program has $5 million in new funding for the fiscal year that began July 1, plus $2.25 million in carry-over funds from last year.

She said 14 projects, including Prospect Meadows, have informed the CAT program that they intend to compete for funds. A 15th project, a library project in Allamakee County in northeast Iowa, already has submitted an application, seeking a grant of $49,460, O'Riley said. She said three other projects that competed in the last fiscal year also will be competing for funds.

O'Riley said the Vision Iowa Board has been awarding grants that average 16 to 18 percent of a project's total cost.

In years past, the CAT program has had as much as $12 million a year to award. An award as large as $1 million for an individual project is uncommon now that the annual appropriation to the CAT program is $5 million, she said.

Prospect Meadows has won significant support from the Linn County Board of Supervisors and Marion, which borders the Prospect Meadows site and could one day annex the property.

Linn County owns the 128-acre site and has an agreement to permit Prospect Meadows to lease it from the county for $1 a year for 95 years. Much of the site is a working farm, and this is the fourth year that Linn County has given Prairie Meadows the county's share of income from the farm, about $50,000 a year. Linn County has said it will provide an additional $1.5 million to the project and the Linn County Conservation Department will contribute $250,000.

Marion has said it will spend $1.25 million for the ball field complex.

And the Iowa Department of Transportation has awarded the project $1.3 million to make road improvements at and through the complex.

Cedar Rapids also has said it will contribute up to $1 million from hotel-motel tax revenue if the complex helps to increase the tax revenue once it opens.

Roeder said he has raised about $3 million in private donations and hopes to raise an additional $1.2 million.

Linn County Supervisors Linda Langston and Brent Oleson said the county's support for Prospect Meadows is as strong as ever, three and half years after the county agreed to a lease on the county site.

Oleson said he encouraged Roeder not to start to build part of the project this year, but to wait until it has sufficient funding to realize the vision of a 17-field complex.

Oleson said it is not simple for a non-profit like Prospect Meadows to bring together public and private funding.

Roeder said the Prospect Meadows project will cost about $11 million to construct, but he said the total project cost will reach about $14 million when road, equipment, fixtures and ancillary costs are factored in.

Supervisors Oleson and Langston said youth baseball and softball in the metro area is as popular as ever and can support a 17-field complex.