MARION — Several people in the audience and on the council showed support for passing additional appropriations for an executive director position for the Marion Arts Commission (MAC) during Tuesday’s Marion Common Council meeting.
Skate park update
To start the meeting, Council President Nick McKinley shared updates on the skatepark that will be where the current one structure is at Hogan Park. He said that there was 98 skaters and 44 “non-riding community” that gave their input in the survey he sent out.
“The company that’s doing the design consultation is Hunger Skateparks. They are compelling all of the information and responses,” McKinley said.
He is hoping in the next few months to have a public meeting to get more public input on the design that they have before starting the funding process.
Cafe Valley updates
The council then moved to discuss the confirmatory resolution for Cafe Valley. This is one of the final steps to officially start the abatement process.
The confirmatory resolution reads as follows: “A resolution designating certain property as an economic revitalization area, authorizing abatement and approving statement of benefits.”
The council approved an economic development agreement with Cafe Valley on Feb. 4, and they will be investing no less than $20.3 million in new manufacturing, research and development (R&D) equipment, logistic distribution and information technology equipment. Cafe Valley will also pay 100 percent of personal property tax on the new equipment for 12 years.
The council unanimously passed the confirmatory resolution, and now it will move to the auditor to begin the process.
Additional appropriation for MAC
Additional Appropriation 1-2025 was introduced during the previous council meeting. This is an ordinance to allocate $50,000 from the general fund to establish an arts district in Marion.
By allocating these funds, an executive director will be the one to help find funds through state grants to establish a downtown arts district.
According to the executive summary, the MAC is prepared to take the lead in showcasing and elevating the arts within the community.
Councilmen Gary Fordyce, David Cain, Jim Brunner and McKinley all expressed that they feel that this is important to the community, and want this to come into fruition.
“I think this is a serious investment in our community when we layer this on everything going on downtown,” Cain said. “I ask my fellow councilmen to support this.”
Fordyce wanted to emphasize that this is a start-up for the arts commission, and any other future funding would not be coming out of the tax payer’s money.
“They (MAC) made it very clear that they don’t want to be dependent on the city money, it’s just a start-up,” Fordyce said. “Their goal is to bring more money in and jobs and businesses into the city of Marion with the option of having an arts commission...It’s a plus-plus for the City of Marion to have that option to have the people that are dedicated to do this for the City of Marion.”
Brunner feels that under Mayor Ronald Morrell’s administration, this is a step to bring in more life to the downtown area.
McKinley was in support of this appropriation and project, but brought up some feedback about how state funding could be impacted.
“We have excellent people at the Marion Arts Commission that are so dedicated and (they are) not making a dime off this to bring the vibrancy to downtown, as councilman Brunner said,” McKinley said. “I have some concern. There’s some current proposed legislation down state that could drastically impact funding in local cities. If things change, then programs might have to get cut or we have to find other ways to fund things.”
The rules were suspended, and the additional appropriation was passed unanimously.
Additional Appropriation 2-2025
For the past several meetings, Mayor Morrell has proposed Additional Appropriation 2-2025, an ordinance allocating $2.2 million from the general fund to the board of works for the capital improvement plan. This amount is to fund different needs in the city hall/departments.
Councilman Brian Cowgill said he thinks that this amount needs to be more in order for the professionals in the building have a sufficient place to work and to make the city better.
“City Hall is where we do business for the city. Any potential businesses or people wanting to live here, it’s got to be a professional place,” Cowgill said.
Fordyce wanted to move this additional appropriation to a third reading to have more time to do more research on some of the most costly items.
Council unanimously voted to move the Additional Appropriation 2-2025 to a third reading at the next council meeting.