HSC unveils $14.6 million building plan

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Sept. 21, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

If all goes as projected, in a couple years, Bemidji's Headwaters Science Center will be housed along the Mississippi River and adjacent to the to-be-renovated Great Northern Depot, HSC officials told the Bemidji City Council Monday.

HSC officials told the council at its regular meeting the group submitted its funding proposal to the state this week and that four preliminary building designs have been created.

The project's architect Charlie Brown, of the Excelsior, Minn., firm TSP One, said the project will cost more than $14,680,000 and hopefully will be housed along the Mississippi River in conjunction with the city's American Heritage Rivers Project.

The new center would be a 52,211-square-foot building, providing space for exhibits, teaching activities and programs, laboratories, collections, administrative offices and a science store.

According to the projected four designs, the facility would sit on about four acres, or two city blocks. It could be in a linear, one-story building, to match the scheme of the railroad depot, or it could be fashioned in three other concepts that all would be multi-storied.

Brown said the HSC group studied up to nine sites, but they kept coming back to the Mississippi River site as the most logical destination. One former consideration, included the current Bemidji High School, which will be vacant in a matter of months.

According to the group's plans, 55 percent, or $7.868 million, of the funding would be appropriated by the state and $6.25 million would be raised from private sources. The city of Bemidji would chip in about $290,000 in the form of land donation.

Between now and the project's completion, however, there are several obstacles HSC staff need to overcome.

HSC's funding request still needs to be approved by the state Legislature. The proposal is now being prioritized by the governor's staff in the Department of Finance and then it will be turned over to the Legislature which would ultimately decide the center's fate.

According to Brown, the Legislature would not discuss the project earlier than next year, and if it were approved, money wouldn't be appropriated until at least July.

The project was estimated at $9 million several years ago, but Brown said much of the elevated cost is due to inflation.

Another problem is the land near the depot and in the railroad corridor near the Mississippi River hasn't been acquired by the city of Bemidji yet, and no one knows what it might cost.

In three of the projected four sites and building designs, the center would sit on property owned by two entities: the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad and Canadian Pacific Soo Line railroad. In the other scenario, the center would sit on just Canadian Pacific Soo Line land.

The land, itself, could pose a problem because it has not been environmentally tested, and it has not been surveyed for archaeological significance.

Finally, the private funding match has not been raised and there will be little help available locally.

There are few large corporations with the ability to pledge large amounts, and many other local dollars have been invested in several other projects, such as the Beltrami County human services building, the new high school, the new Lincoln Elementary and depot project.

Bemidji Mayor Doug Peterson said he was concerned about the private match because it was a battle to raise just the $700,000 needed for the depot project.

"$700,000 was a huge, huge mountain to climb," Peterson said, "and we're not there yet."

HSC Executive Director Laddie Elwell assured the council that private contributions wouldn't burden anyone locally.

"We understand that the money is not here," Elwell said at the meeting. "We don't intend to compete with the depot."

The Headwaters Science Center opened almost six years ago in a former J.C. Penney's store, 413 Beltrami Ave. N.W. Between 9,000 to 14,000 people annually have visited the center and it has served many more people through satellite programs, according to HSC's request sent to the state.

Two reasons the group is seeking a new building is that the current building is not handicapped accessible, and it is in poor physical condition.