Linn supervisors reaffirm backing for Prospect Meadows ball field complex

Without blinking, the Linn County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday continued its commitment to the ambitious Prospect Meadows ball field complex project by extending through the end of the year the time for the $11 million project to break ground on 121 acres of county-owned land.

The extension was matter of fact and came without comment and reflects both the supervisors' backing for the proposed 17-ballfield complex at County Home Road and Highway 13 north of Marion and the supervisors' belief that the project will come to pass, Supervisor Brent Oleson said.

'We support the project 110 percent, and we will be looking for other ways to support it,” Oleson said. 'We fully expect that it will be built.”

In extending the deadline for the Prospect Meadows project to start, the supervisors also agreed to let the project receive the county's share of payments for crops now grown on the county-owned project site for a third consecutive year.

Jack Roeder, president and general manager of Prospect Meadows Inc., and Kevin Bestick, a volunteer adviser to the project, said the crop payment at the end of this growing season will bring to about $150,000 that the project has gotten in crop payments over three years.

The supervisors' agreement with the Prospect Meadows project calls for Linn County to lease the property to the project for $1 a year for 95 years should Prospect Meadows build the baseball complex.

Roeder, the retired former general manager of the Cedar Rapids Kernels minor league baseball team, and Bestick said the hope now is that construction on the project could start as soon as late 2014 and be complete in 2016.

However, Roeder said the project continues to work on its goal of raising $4.2 million in private funds and $6.5 million in public funds.

It has tallied about $2.8 million in private funds, including $600,000 from Perfect Game, $400,000 from Hall & Hall Engineers and $300,000 from Transamerica.

On the public side:

'The city of Marion has agreed to contribute $750,000.

'The project is seeking a $1.266 million state transportation RISE - Revitalize Iowa's Sound Economy - grant for the baseball complex's road work.

'The project plans to request funding from the Vision Iowa Board's Community Attraction and Tourism grant program.

Oleson said he will be attending an Iowa Transportation Commission meeting with Prospect Meadows representatives on June 10 during which the commission may make a decision on the RISE grant, he said.

As the project continues to raise money, Bestick said Prospect Meadows has been working with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to finalize a design of a septic system for the 17-field complex.

Roeder and Bestick said the baseball complex will serve local baseball teams and bring in teams from across the state and out of state to compete in tournaments from March into October.

They estimate that the complex will have a $25 million economic impact for the metro area and will generate $1 million a year in state sales tax.

Roeder said the project is too important to give up on, and he compared it to his days with the Cedar Rapids Kernels when the ballclub finally built a new stadium in 2002 after seven or so years of discussing and trying.

'So that didn't happen overnight, and this isn't going to, either,” Roeder said. 'I think the beauty of this, working with the Linn County Board of Supervisors, is they're more concerned that we take our time and do this thing right rather than any pressure to get it done by a certain date.

'I'd like to have it done today. But if it's not done until 2017, in the big picture, that's not going to mean a lot ...

. There are so many positives to this. The key is to get it done so we're going to have it for generations to come.”