Council poised to build a riverfront amphitheater and a May's Island ice rink and water fountain

The City Council will ask as soon as March for a state River Enhancement Community and Tourism or RECAT grant to help fund either a $4 million riverfront amphitheater, a $2.8-million May's Island ice rink and fountain or both.

Design on the projects would start in July -- when city funds would be available in the new budget year -- with construction on one or the other venues likely to come in 2011, Julie Sina, the city's parks and recreation director, told the City Council at a noon meeting on Tuesday.

Any state RECAT grant typically funds up to 20 percent of the cost of a project, with the requirement that the city, with the help from county government and private investment, pay the rest of a project's cost.

Council member Chuck Wieneke said he would support the sale of city bonds to provide some of the local dollar match for at least one of the projects in the next budget year. None of the other council members objected to the idea.

The amphitheater and May's Island venue that changes from water fountain with spray jets to ice rink in winter are two of eight projects that now have become part of the city's new Parks and Recreation Master Plan. The plan was put together after a recent series of public open houses.

By far, the most expensive of the eight projects is the Multigenerational Community Life Center, a $60-million to $80-million recreation and community center proposed for a spot in Ellis Park. Where the money will come for that is far from clear, but no one on the council expressed any opposition to building the center. In fact, many council members are eager to begin identifying funds for the project, though council member Monica Vernon, who led Tuesday's meeting as mayor pro tem, said residents surely will need to pass a bond issue one day to provide some of the funding.

Council member Kris Gulick was quick on Tuesday to note that the multigenerational center would be a community “home run,” but he said the city needed to hit some singles first. Gulick said the amphitheater and the May's Island project both qualified as good singles.

Council member Pat Shey said some of the city's largest corporate citizens have expressed an interest in investing in city projects -- he named Rockwell Collins and AEGON USA -- and he said that perhaps one of those would invest in the amphitheater in exchange for naming rights.

Shey also noted that the council had discussed building a riverfront amphitheater before the June 2008 and had learned then that there is a market for such a venue in the Midwest. The proposed amphitheater is a 5,000 seat one – smaller than the one talked about two years ago – that would be located on the west side of the Cedar River overlooking May's Island and the downtown.

The eight projects called for in the city's master plan also include a Time Check greenway; a  west bank greenway downtown; a promenade along the east side of the river through the downtown; a wetland park on part of the Sinclair property; Seminole Valley Park improvements; and an assortment of new naturalized areas.

The city has ranked the projects based on capital cost, ability to quickly start construction, cost to operate, challenges and need and impact. The amphitheater project scored best, naturalized areas and the west bank greenway next, and the May's Island venue and the promenade next.

In answer to questions from council members, City Manager Jim Prosser seemed to say that the flood-damaged underground parking ramp on May's Island is structurally sound. But after Tuesday's meeting, both he and Sina said engineers would weigh in on the structure if the city, in fact, puts an ice rink and fountain on top of it. Water weighs eight pounds a gallon, Prosser noted.

 Council member Chuck Swore noted that the city is comparing itself to cities with larger rivers than the Cedar River, and he wondered if there was enough of a Cedar River during much of the year below the 5-in-1 dam in the downtown to want to be near. Swore was suggesting a dam below downtown to raise the water through the downtown when flooding isn't a concern.