by Joseph Back

“We’re diligently working on updates for the meeting on the 19th,” Russ Kiviniemi of Cedar Corporation said when reached for comment on the upcoming Public Design Review meeting for the new Community Center building. “Nothing has changed regarding the floor plan, the building size, or the elevation.”

The City of Stanley and its engineering firm of Cedar Corporation are hosting another public input session to collect your feedback on architectural designs that are now in final draft form relating to the new Community Center Building to be built at Chapman Park in the near future. In attendance at the meeting February 19th at 7:00 p.m. in the Stanley Fire Hall will be the Mayor of Stanley, Norm Christianson, and one or more members of the Stanley Common Council, plus Cedar Corporation representatives Russ Kiviniemi and Corey Scheidler. Also invited to the meeting but not yet responding to confirm attendance as of this past Saturday were several community and local organizations.

At the last meeting to review the Community Center building plans in early October of last year, it was expressed by several people in attendance that it would be better to hold off construction of the new Community Center building until after Father’s Day Weekend, to allow for the Stanley Rodeo as well as the annual Truck and Tractor Pull at Chapman Park to be completed, as an active construction site during these two events was deemed to be far from ideal. Speaking by telephone this past week, Kiviniemi stated that no design changes since the October 2019 meeting would affect cost, and that the Cedar Corporation team was still working on preparing final drawings.

In the Community Center building plans as presented this past October were a five-twelve roof pitch, along with polycarbonate end doors to let in sunlight, a removable partition in the building’s center to hold simultaneous events, and two separate kitchen areas to go along with each side. For this, the new Community Center building’s total potential price tag with allowances was reported to be set at 1.2 million, of which $160,000 would come from insurance funds on the previous building, while a Federal Community Development Block Grant administered through the State of Wisconsin Department of Administration would pay for two-thirds of the building cost. This would still leave $173,000 for the city to come up with if the cost can be trimmed to $1 million. It was reported at the October meeting that the City of Stanley would talk about rental rates for the Community Center to be rented out for events, but that they would not be exorbitant.