Council Likely to Use Liquor Fund For Heritage Center Bridge Loan

Lakeville's Heritage Center project continues to move forward, and will likely continue to do so on the back of a $400,000 bridge loan from the city's liquor fund.

At a work session on Monday, March 26, the majority of a split City Council agreed to use the liquor fund for the bridge loan, according to a report in Sun Thisweek. The move wont be official until it's voted upon at the April 2 meeting.

Once sold, the senior center facility is expected to fetch around $208,000 which would be used to repay more than half the balance of the bridge loan. The remainder, according to Parks and Recreation Department Director Steve Michaud, would be repaid by way of fundraising. The city has already raised more than $55,000 for the project, Michaud said.

The project will remodel the city's old police station into the Heritage Center, a facility that will house the , Beyond the Yellow Ribbon group, and the . The space would open in September.

Matt Little, Laurie Rieb and Kerrin Swecker— theCity Council members in favor of using liquor funds as a bridge loan—say there's precedent, according to Sun Thisweek's report. In the past, liquor funds have been used to pay for building improvement projects and other capitol expenses.

According to Sun Thisweek, Mayor Mark Bellows and Council Member Colleen Ratzlaff LaBeau, who have both been against the project from the start, would like to wait until the senior center is sold before proceeding.

“The former police station stands as a monument to government ineptness and inefficiency,” Sun Thisweek reported Bellows as saying.

Bids have also been received on the $1.1 million project, and those will be unveiled at the April 2 meeting as well.

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