By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
At the request of Vice-Mayor Shaun Musil, proponents of an open-air pavilion in downtown Hays returned to city commission chambers Thursday night to discuss revisions to the Downtown Hays Development Corporation (DHDC) proposal, and to further clarify the city’s expected participation, either financial or in-kind labor.
A major sticking point is a lease with Union Pacific Railroad for its property at the east end of Union Pacific Park, 10th and Main.
What was first proposed violates a city ordinance, according to Hays City Attorney John Bird.
“We have an ordinance that says certain provisions can’t be in our contracts in the city of Hays unless you have bid it or waived it ahead of time…not after the fact. In this case, UP is the vendor basically selling us the right to use their land,” Bird explained. “There are numerous provisions in it (the lease) that would violate that ordinance.”
DHDC Executive Director Sara Bloom said her office is working with a new regional Union Pacific representative who is open to renegotiating the lease.
“He’s very open to the project and been very helpful so far. He has stated that he is willing to work with the city of Hays to revise the lease as long as he’s working with the city of Hays,” Bloom told commissioners. “If the DHDC were to be the ones to sign the lease–we’re small fries–he could care less. He’s not going to revise a darn thing. If the city of Hays agrees to this project and they say they want to take this on, the Union Pacific railroad is willing to renegotiate that lease–to what extent, we have no idea.”
“If we want this to move forward, we all need to agree (first) to the issues in the lease,” said Musil.
DHDC has said the organization will pay the property lease, originally estimated at $5,244 annually. Musil is in full agreement, “no matter what the price would go up to.”
“I don’t want future commissions to have to pay for something that they didn’t have nothing to do with.”
The project total cost is estimated at $190,676 and would also include a public restroom, for which DHDC earlier said it would be gifting almost $50,000.
“The restroom facility I personally think it should be closer to UP Park. I think it would be more convenient for downtown (patrons),” Musil said. “Out of this whole project, I think this is the most needed thing in our community.
Musil wants DHDC to pay for the sidewalk construction–estimated at $10,400–with the city donating labor. “That’s similar to what we did with the Hays Dog Park,” said City Manager Toby Dougherty.
Dougherty said he would probably recommend any costs to the city for the project be paid for with the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) transient guest tax.
“Transient tax dollars are used to promote the community, draw visitors to town, facilitate visitors while they’re in town, and provide amenities to visitors,” Dougherty explained. “Downtown Hays is promoted as a destination. Transient guest tax dollars can be spent on capital improvements like this. CVB has a decent contingency for something like this.”
Bloom informed commissioners DHDC has changed its timeline and decided “this will most likely be a two year project.” DHDC has been working with the Fort Hays State University Construction Management program to develop a plan for building the open-air metal roof pavilion.
“So when the UPRR lease is signed and the project is approved, we would go ahead and do the smaller stuff on the property,” Bloom explained. “We would level the ground, remove the concrete pad. We can get the bathroom in right away. We could do the (safety) fence. We could do a lot of those little things that doesn’t require Fort Hays State University students to be there, so that when they do start the project in August 2017, everything is done except for them erecting the pavilion.”
No action can be taken during a city commission work session; the pavilion discussion will continue at next week’s regular commission meeting.