Community Center public meetings are scheduled

The Cook County Community Center Steering Committee has scheduled two public meetings in May for input and feedback on the project. The first meeting is Tuesday, May 10 at 7 p.m. at the courthouse Commissioners Room. A second meeting will be held at Birch Grove Community Center, 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 11.

The committee brought to the county board Tuesday, some of the information that will be offered at the two May meetings. They have recommendations for site layout, floor plan, and program space based in part on community input gathered from stakeholder surveys already collected. The committee is also ready with preliminary estimates for the financial side of the project.

The cost to build a community center is coming in at approximately $11 million which is within the $8 to $12 million budget. Steering committee members would like to pare that down; they also consider operations and maintenance costs are still too high.

Commissioners remain concerned over operation and maintenance cost projections as well as the inability of the City of Grand Marais to participate in planning due to swimming pool contract conflicts.