MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU-WDLB) — The Marshfield Area Community Foundation will serve as the clearinghouse for money raised for the city’s proposed new aquatic center.
With Aldermen Jason Zaleski and Peter Hendler absent, the Marshfield Common Council voted 8-0 last night in favor of creating a project-specific fund agreement with the Foundation.
City Parks-and-Recreation Director Justin Casperson told the Council that fundraising efforts will start shortly for the proposed aquatic center project, which the city has committed three-million dollars to, provided the rest is raised privately.
“Have we had conversations with individuals who might be interested in the project and giving money? Yes. Have they given us a check or wrote any money out? No. But we have strategically talked to individuals who have expressed interest in giving to the project.”
Several Aldermen has concerns with a provision in the fundraising agreement that spells out how the money will be used if full fundraising goals are not met. Foundation Director Amber Kiggens-Leifheit said donors must be told how their donations are going to be used. And since there are no refunds, she said the Foundation must be upfront about where the money would go.
“But we have to protect the donor. We can’t return a check and say whoops we’re not going to be able to build what we originally envisioned. So when our people are out there talking they have to tell them, this is what we want to do. But if we don’t reach our goal, we’re going to have to do something smaller. So everyone is on the same page.”
The agreement identifies June of 2021 as the projected completion time of fundraising, and August of 2022 as the completion of the aquatic center. The agreement also identifies September of 2026 as the sunset date for all future pledges.
A recent study showed an appetite for building a new aquatic facility in Marshfield. The findings of a campaign feasibility study were presented to the Marshfield Common Council in March. Jodi Sweeney from the Sweeney Consulting Group said her study analyzed the need for the new aquatic center, the plans for the new facility, and the amount of money that could be raised privately. Her study suggested the necessary three-million dollars in private funds needed for the project can be raised.
The cost of the new facility is approximately six-million dollars. Last October, the Council signed off on a challenge grant and agreed to cover half the cost of a proposed new swimming pool for the city, if community fundraising efforts could raise the other half. Potential donors have already been identified.
