Minot’s Community Development committee met today to discuss how to award $4.8 million in sales tax dollars allocated to community facilities. That recommendation will now be advanced to Minot’s full City Council. The City of Minot’s news release on the meeting and awarded projects follows below.
— Official News Release, City of Minot —
The Minot City Council’s Community Development Committee on Wednesday recommended awarding approximately $4.8 million to seven community facility project requests.
The full City Council is scheduled to act on the recommendations at its Aug. 7 regular meeting. If approved by the Council, the funds would be dispersed in 2018.
At its July 20 meeting, the Community Development Committee reviewed nine requests totaling approximately $11.9 million. The fund has an estimated $4.8 million available. On Wednesday, the committee recommended seven awards:
-$1 million to Magic City Discovery Center to help finance the construction of a 20,000-foot museum with exhibition space, educational classrooms, and a community multi-purpose space. The project had requested $2.5 million.
-$1 million to the Roosevelt Park Zoo to assist with construction of new habitats for the big cats at the zoo. The project had requested $3 million.
-$1 million to Minot State University to help replace seating in the Dome. The project had requested $2 million.
-$787,500 to the City of Minot to help fund a recycling transfer facility. The project had requested $2.5 million.
-A $550,000 request from the City of Minot for structural repairs to the Carnegie Center was fully funded.
-A $392,500 request from the City of Minot to replace the Minot Municipal Auditorium’s main arena floor and light fixtures was fully funded.
-A $70,000 request from the City of Minot to install physical and technical upgrades to Council Chambers at City Hall was fully funded.
The approved requests for the Discovery Center, Roosevelt Park Zoo, MSU, and the City of Minot’s recycling transfer facility include a requirement that those entities must raise at least 50 percent of the amount awarded by Dec. 31, 2018.
Two project requests did not receive recommendations for funding:
-Souris Valley Animal Shelter requested $900,000 to partially fund phase 1 of a plan to remodel and expand their facility.
-YWCA requested $5,000 to convert a bathroom into a handicapped accessible bathroom and to create a new program called “Fresh Start.”
The Community Facilities Fund receives sales tax appropriations from one of Minot’s 1-cent city sales taxes, with 30 percent of the City’s second 1-cent sales tax being directed to community facilities.
