by April Scheinoha
Reporter

The Thief River Falls City Council is seeking a $2 million grant to renovate the Huck Olson Memorial Civic Center. At its meeting Tuesday, Nov. 16, the council approved seeking a federal grant through the Economic Development Administration. The grant is being offered through the American Rescue Plan Act.

The city hopes to renovate the locker rooms, construct additional locker rooms and construct a new concessions area at the arena. Currently, the concessions area is located upstairs. City Administrator Angie Philipp said the proposed expansion would occur on the side of the HOMCC closest to the Pennington County Fairgrounds.

MJ Architects has estimated that the project will cost $2.25 million due to the recent spike in construction materials. The city has already set aside $400,000 for the project.
Jim Retka, economic resiliency specialist with the Northwest Regional Development Commission, approached the city about potential projects that needed funding. Retka has written an executive project summary for the request.

“To make room for public restroom and concession on the main floor, it is proposed to renovate the existing locker rooms and construct a new expansion along the south wall to include six to eight locker rooms with support spaces (toilets, showers, mechanical room, corridors, office, Zamboni room, etc.),” wrote Retka. “The location of the new locker rooms should be planned to align with the existing players’ boxes for direct access to the ice sheet from the locker rooms. This will require adjustments and modifications to the existing spectator seating to tie into the players’ boxes.”

Retka wrote that the HOMCC was forced to close in March 2020 due to public safety concerns related to the pandemic. It remained closed for the remainder of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. VenuWorks laid off three full-time employees as a result of the pandemic.

“Combined, revenue from operations decreased by 57% in 2020 compared to 2019 and continues to lag through the first nine months of 2021 by 72% at the site,” wrote Retka. “Overall, city lodging tax decreased by 28% in 2020 compared to 2019. Had it not been for a large construction project in the area for a majority of 2020, the results would have been much worse.”

The council approved raising electric rates for 2022-25. The changes are effective with the Jan. 1 bill. Even though it approved these changes, the council reserves the right to change the rates at any point during that time frame.

The new rates include a $0.50 per-month increase in customer usage charges for residential customers, and a $5 per-month increase in customer usage charges for some commercial customers. Currently, those parties pay anywhere from $6.46 to $90 per month in customer usage charges. Some commercial customers will see no increases in their customer usage charges.

Other electric rates – energy usage charges – will also increase. Those charges will increase between $0.0005 and $0.18 per kilowatt-hour per month. Energy usage rates will remain the same for commercial standby customers.

According to information provided to the council, the rates needed to increase for the following reasons:

• The Northern Municipal Power Agency bonds require “member cities to have rates that maintain an average coverage ratio that sufficiently covers the wholesale costs, and all department bonds and expenses.”
• The bond payments on the city’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure system
• Kilowatt-hour sales, which decreased 2.4% in 2017
• Building the city’s electric reserves with a realistic goal of $2.5 million to $3 million over time

Council member Mike Lorenson said the city would move backwards if the council didn’t approve these electric rate increases. He said it would eventually need to dip into its General Fund.

Mayor Brian Holmer noted that the city didn’t want to be like Xcel Energy, which has some of its rates skyrocketing 12 and 18%.

The increases were recommended as part of a study commissioned by the council.

Bruce Brink, VenuWorks operations director in Thief River Falls, announced the Ralph Engelstad Arena will host the Harlem Globetrotters on Thursday, March 17. Tickets are expected to go on sale in early December. Tickets will only be available through Ticketmaster.

Brink provided an update on other activities at REA and HOMCC. Ten hockey games will be played over Thanksgiving weekend at the arenas. He added that the Holiday Fair, which was sponsored Nov. 13 by The Times, went well.

The next council meeting is scheduled Tuesday, Dec. 7 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.