Apr. 6—EAST GRAND FORKS — Ask Reid Huttunen questions about East Grand Forks’ biggest needs and arising issues and his answers might be based on the possibilities of the future as well as his own current to-do list.

Regarding business needs, perhaps some sort of future development along the Highway 2 corridor would be nice, he said. Considering East Grand Forks is the gateway to a number of rural towns and their associated agricultural pursuits, he believes a farm outfitter — something in the line of a farm and fleet store — would be a good addition to the retail choices in the community.

For recreation, he’d like to see a new baseball complex located next to the busy Civic Center, where so many events are held now and which is in need of upgrades itself.

There is the need to finish the Economic Development Authority’s strategic plan, a process occuring while efforts have begun to replace EDA Director Paul Gorte when he retires in late August.

There were the two February “visioning sessions” with city department heads and members of City Council, at which several priorities emerged, including an industrial park master plan, a plan to rehabilitate roads, south-end bridge planning and commercial land development.

Meanwhile, a new mayor will be on board later this year, since current Mayor Steve Gander has announced he will not seek re-election and instead will run for a spot in the state House of Representatives.

And looming above all is a list of needed improvements at the city’s two ice arenas, also identified as a priority during the visioning sessions. Residents will vote on a proposed funding mechanism in November.

It’s been a busy first eight months as administrator for Huttunen, who took over Aug. 1 to fill the position left vacant when David Murphy resigned last April to take a similar position in St. Joseph, Minnesota. After City Clerk Megan Nelson served as East Grand Forks’ interim administrator, Huttunen was hired for the job; he previously was the city’s parks and recreation superintendent.

“Yes, there has been a lot of transition and changes,” Huttunen said. “I’m really excited about where they all are going. Even in the last few months, it feels like we’re really ramping up a lot of different work and programs.”

Since Murphy left, a number of initiatives and developments have come to the forefront, adding immediacy to the learning curve that comes for any newcomer in a leadership position.

“The whole leadership group is going to start to really look a lot different by the time we get to January of next year, so of the challenges that we have before us, that’s a big one. Perhaps ‘opportunities’ is a better way to say it, rather than ‘challenges,'” Huttunen said. “And the vote for the recreation projects, I think, is going to be a guiding principle for where our city goes next. From a budget perspective, we have been sort of in this cycle for the last four or five years now of having really difficult budget discussions and trying to keep our tax levy increase to a point that keeps it where we feel it is reasonable and responsible to our citizens. And that will only become more difficult if the sales tax (proposal) doesn’t pass, due to the type of improvements that we’re facing in those facilities. We’ll be at an impasse and trying to decide what to do next.”

East Grand Forks residents will decide in November whether to enact a proposed 1% sales tax to fund capital improvements to VFW Memorial Arena and the Civic Center — things like ice plant replacements, roof renovations, parking lot reconstructions and various upgrades to conform to Americans with Disabilities Act standards. The city received legislative authority for the 1% sales tax vote and, according to Huttunen, will be required by law to have two separate ballot questions, each asking for approval to raise the local sales tax 1% for 20 years or until the tax collected is enough to pay for, in Huttunen’s words, the following:

—”Civic Center sports complex site: 1% sales tax increase to complete $6,745,000 plus associated bonding costs for reconstruction and remodeling of, and updates to the Civic Center Sports Complex;

—”and VFW Memorial Arena/Blue Line Arena site: 1% sales tax increase to complete $8,000,000 plus associated bonding costs for reconstruction, remodeling of, and upgrades to the VFW Memorial Arena.”

In a clarifying email, Huttunen said if the proposal gets voter approval, “the dollar amounts listed above are the total cost authorized for sales tax funds to be used for construction, not the total we would expect to collect from the sales tax. We estimate we’d collect about $22 million total in sales tax over the course of 20 years. The additional funds collected beyond the $14.745 million used for projects would go toward paying bonding costs, interest payments, etc.”

The process to get the proposal on the ballot was tedious. It first arose in 2018, but Minnesota law requires legislative approval before new tax proposals can go to a citywide vote. Originally, it was a higher proposed tax (2%) and for a longer span (30 years). It later was reduced to 1.25% over 20 years before morphing into the current 1% over 20 years.

The COVID pandemic added delays in legislative approval and in 2022, lawmakers concluded their session before making a decision. The go-ahead from the Legislature finally came last year, setting up this year’s November vote.

“We really are trying to be responsible on the improvements that need to be in front of us,” Huttunen said. “We have done community surveys on these recreational projects (and the surveys) have had the full gamut of ideas from people in the community, from ‘we don’t need to spend any money at all and facilities are fine as they are,’ to ‘let’s accept them as they are and just keep pushing forward,’ to ‘(the facilities) are so old and worn out, at what point do we just tear him down and start over?’ And, you know, I don’t think those options are good.”

In the meantime, prices have risen due to inflation.

“We’ve seen significant cost increases in this project and what we used to think we could do for $20 million. Now, the sales tax is going to be completely consumed by those rehab — or I don’t like using the word ‘deferred’ maintenance, but the maintenance-type items,” he said. “And if we’re going to have any enhancements that create new uses for the facilities or new opportunities … now it’s going to come down to fundraising.”

For example, Huttunen prefers the city move forward with a renovation of the baseball fields adjacent to the Civic Center. He envisions a field with artificial turf that would “contract everything into one central location.” At present, the city’s main baseball facility — located farther south — does not have a changing area for players, relies on portable toilets and does not have a weather shelter.

But the baseball facility proposal probably won’t be affordable after improvements to the ice arenas — again, partially due to inflationary pressures associated with the delays in the approval process, Huttunen said. Fundraising will have to be the solution, he said.

Additionally, he has focused much of his attention toward East Grand Forks’ future — things like the EDA’s strategic plan. And he does wonder what the coming years might bring, especially in business development.

The Herald asked Huttunen: “Regarding businesses, what is East Grand Forks missing? What is it that East Grand Forks needs?”

“That’s a tough one for me to answer. I would say more of our discussion to this point … (but) before we can even really dream about what we want, we need to make sure that we understand what property we have available to develop,” he said, noting that commercial land availability — specifically a lack thereof — could hinder development.

However, “as you go down the Highway 2 corridor, I think everyone could envision … that being redeveloped with sort of a strip mall kind of environment, where there’s a number of small businesses and boutiques and merchants there. That’s what I envision and I think that’s what most people in the community envision,” he said. “We have, at times, talked about that we think a good fit to East Grand Forks would be — a Fleet Farm or a Runnings style of store. … Those are some of the immediate thoughts that I have, but available commercial land to grow into developed use, I think, is the first challenge.”