SR-R Community Survey on Two Potential Projects

SAUK RAPIDS (WJON News) — Residents of the Sauk Rapids-Rice School District are encouraged to complete a community survey.

Chief Inspector Brad Bergstrom says the survey was recently sent to every address in the district. The survey includes information about two potential projects and the potential tax impact they could have on homeowners.

According to Bergstrom, one of the projects is a possible new 60,000-square-foot ECFE building to replace Hillside, which is nearly 100 years old.

If we look at roughly the same size space to build new versus redoing what’s already there, it’s about $25 million to redo it, it’s $27 million to build new, so it doesn’t really make sense. Now we’re looking at a little bit more space than that.

Bergstrom says the new ECFE building would cost about $37.9 million. He says they are bursting at the seams with students enrolling in the program, up from 160 to about 240 now.

He says that during 22 community meetings in 2018, six priorities were identified that the community wanted to address, four of which were finalized. They include a new Pleasantview, improved pick-up and drop-off areas at all buildings, safe and secure entrances, and utilizing the space they already had.

The other potential project is a $19.8 million outdoor activities complex next to the high school.

The complex would include two specific things: first, a stadium with an artificial turf field for soccer, lacrosse, American football, etc. And then there would be a nine-lane track and field, also with artificial turf in the middle.

Bergstrom says the complex will replace the high school’s current facility, which was built in 1991. He says Sauk Rapids-Rice is one of two schools in the Central Lakes Conference that does not have artificial turf.

The timing for this project, and also for a potential new ECFE building, is that the high school bond will be paid off in December 2025.

The last two priorities were a new ECFE building and a new high school athletic complex. Bergstrom says the board wants to make sure they still have community support for the last two priorities before moving forward.

The deadline to complete the survey is August 5. The school board will give a presentation on the survey results at a special meeting on August 20. They will then determine next steps based on the survey results.