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January 5, 2005
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| Major John Mallet helped shepherd Duluth's proposal for a community center through the Salvation Army's process. (MPR Photo/Stephanie Hemphill) |
Duluth, Minn. — While she was living, Joan Kroc helped build a community center in San Diego that serves low-income people, especially children. She found it so satisfying, she decided to put a provision in her will for $1.5 billion to get others built around the country.
The Salvation Army is in charge of the project. It invited proposals from cities in each of its four administrative regions. Nearly 40 midwestern cities applied. That number has now been whittled down to 10 finalists.
Duluth's proposal was for a multi-purpose center which could provide everything from computer classes and sports facilities to social services.
Major Ralph Bukiewicz is overseeing the process in the midwest. He says Duluth had a leg up because a citizen's committee had already spent two years studying the need for recreational facilities in the city.
"We also recognized the fact that the mayor, city council, and community leaders have rallied around to already begin to identify some local pledges and gifts," Bukiewicz says. "They will be used to match the endowment, to make sure a facility such as this not only survives financially, but thrives, and provides a valuable service."
Organizers of youth sports in Duluth are excited. Mike Gerber heads up the youth basketball program. Right now, his teams have to play at schools around town, and that makes it hard to schedule competitions.
"With a facility that we could have access to during the day, and during weekends more easily, it would enable us to hopefully involve outlying communities such as Two Harbors, Esko, Cloquet," Gerber says. "We could form leagues so we wouldn't have to travel every weekend, every other weekend to the Twin Cities metro area for competitive basketball."
But the center wouldn't just be for sports. Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson says it would provide an important option for kids who might otherwise turn to crime or drugs.
"Maybe they'll be at one of the cultural programs, maybe they'll be in one of the computer classes, maybe they'll be playing basketball, or ice hockey," Bergson says. "It keeps them off the street, and it will also feed hungry people, help the homeless, have education qualities to it, and it will employ some people."
It would be especially appropriate if it employed some low-income people from the West Duluth neighborhood where the center would be built.
The community center in St. Paul would be located in the Frogtown neighborhood. The Salvation Army's Ralph Bukiewicz says the young immigrant families in Frogtown are just the kinds of people Joan Kroc wanted to reach.
"But also it has the potential. It is not a completely impoverished area," he says. "It has the potential, with the city, the visionary leaders that are part of that, and other collaborative groups, to simply come along and support the Salvation Army's effort, to provide a resource that will help turn an entire community around."
The winning cities will now get money to develop more detailed plans. But the competition isn't over. One or two projects will likely be eliminated during the next year.
Duluth has a unique opportunity to show its determination. The center is proposed for a site next to an ice arena that burned down last month. And Mayor Herb Bergson says the city won't wait for the Kroc money to rebuild.
"We're going to move ahead to raise money for an ice sheet on our own," Bergson says. "Because we need an ice arena for the kids next hockey season, and the Kroc process is such that we couldn't get into a building by next hockey season, so we've got to raise the money ourselves. That shows a commitment by us that we want the overall center to be there."
Minnesota cities whose proposals were dropped include Minneapolis, Rochester, Mankato, and St. Cloud.
Final awards will be made in the summer or fall. Each center can receive up to $50 million -- half for construction and half for an operating endowment. Each city must match the operating endowment with local money.
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