By Sara StrongThe Luverne City Council Tuesday met to approve a deal that will give Dingmann Funeral Home a new location.The deal was just verbal as of press time and the council met Tuesday night, but preliminary communication shows that it was favorable.Plans have Dingmann purchasing the Luverne Medical Center and using parking to the north for customers. This will become final as soon as the new Sioux Valley clinic north of the Veterans Addition is finished in 2005, leaving the current site vacant.The hospital will probably be demolished later and used as parking for Dingmann. The parking lots north of the Medical Center could be sold for residential development. Possible uses for existing hospital have been studied, and remodeling costs for any business would be too much to make selling it likely.As another part of the deal, Fledgling Field will be transferred to the Economic Development Authority, which will find a use for the vacant lot.The Tuesday evening meeting of the Council brings to an end years of frustration on the part of Dan Dingmann, owner."We’ve been trying to get something done for five years, so it’s nice to have this," Dingmann said.Parking, space, handicapped accessibility were all reasons Dingmann wanted to relocate from his current historic structure on West Main Street.He will move into the current Luverne Medical Center in 2005, but meanwhile the current Dingmann Funeral Home is installing a ramp for handicapped customers.Both sides satisfied with the dealLuverne City Administrator Greg LaFond, Economic Development Director Dan Statema, Dingmann representative Tom Serie, and attorney Doug Eisma came to an agreement Dec. 17.The city will finance $100,000 of the purchase, which will be repaid in 15 years."If the city had kept the clinic, it’d go off the tax rolls," Serie said.He estimates the funeral home will generate $15,000 in taxes per year and will continue with its $9,000 annual tax increment financing payments.As it stands before the meeting Tuesday night, the clinic and four lots north of the clinic will be sold to Dingmann for $235,000.The closing date will be June 2005, or within 10 days of the date the facility is vacated.Dingmann will end up spending about $300,000 to remodel it. About 12,000 square feet of space is available, and a crematorium may be included, if permitted.Serie said, "The city is getting more than if it remodeled the clinic and sold it to someone else."After the city approves of the deal for Fledgling Field, and for the funeral home to occupy the clinic, Dingmann still has to apply for a conditional use permit for the business, because it is in a residential-institutional zone.Dingmann isn’t the only one happy this issue is resolved. From the city’s perspective, this is also a win.LaFond said, "It solves two big issues for us: Fledgling Field will be decided, and it allows the city to proceed with the clinic."The city is no longer pressed for a zoning decision on Fledgling Field (see accompanying story for background). The problem of what will occupy the medical center — which will be vacated when Sioux Valley finishes its new home on the north edge of Luverne in 2005 — is also solved.LaFond said, "We tried to think of the long-term increases in property tax valuation. … It was a good resolution for everyone."The rest of the storyFive years ago, Dan Dingmann knew something had to change for his funeral home to stay successful. The historic building on West Main Street was formerly the Holm Funeral Home, and before that, Smith’s. It had become clear that the funeral home was smaller than today’s customers wanted, and it wasn’t handicapped accessible, impairing arrangements for funeral guests. Parking along Main Street and side streets was also cumbersome.Dingmann started shopping around for a funeral home space and thought he found it in Fledgling Field on Highway 75.oCornerstone Construction purchased Fledgling Field in March 2000 for $41,000 from the Luverne School District in an auction. Cornerstone was going to build the funeral home and sell it to Dingmann.oFledgling Field is zoned R-1, or low-density residential, which is held in the highest esteem in the city codes, and is the most difficult to develop, outside of single-family dwellings. A funeral home wasn’t allowed as a conditional use within R-1 zones. During the process some neighbors were adamant that the area not become anything other than the grassy park it had been for years. oAfter many meetings and debates about the legitimacy of a funeral home in the residential area, Cornerstone Construction planted alfalfa on the plot of land in 2001. The public largely supported the funeral home’s attempts at a new location on Fledgling Field, inspiring many letters to the editor and attendance at public meetings. It also inspired a sort of "in your face" message to those against development when someone placed cow cutouts in the alfalfa field in July 2001.oThe next attempt at developing Fledgling Field was at the end of 2001, when the Planning Commission voted to recommend rezoning the area R-2, which allows more flexibility to properties because it is a higher density residential zone.Cornerstone withdrew the request to rezone it R-2 when it became clear that the Luverne City Council wouldn’t follow the recommendation of the Planning Commission.oIn 2002 talk turned to zoning Fledgling Field R-I, or residential institutional, where funeral homes are allowed as a conditional use.That application was put on hold, so the city’s new Comprehensive Plan could be drafted without too much emphasis put on the future of Fledgling Field.oSioux Valley’s 2003 plans to move the hospital and clinic to the north edge of Luverne changed all the previous plans for Fledgling Field and Dingmann. Now, Fledgling Field’s future is in the hands of the city, as the ownership will be transferred as part of the hospital deal. Also, Dingmann has a historic building near and dear to many local people, that will go on the market as soon as he settles in to his new location in 2005.Fledgling Field has a long, rich history in local politics. In September 1894 a $20,000 bond election to build a new school was held with the measure passing 123 to 37. That October the School Board purchased a site at the southeast corner of Kniss and Brown streets for $1,750. In November 1895, the building was ready for occupancy.The new structure was made of quartzite mined from local quarries. The building housed only the high school. The building was enlarged and remodeled a few times through the years. It even housed a two-year normal school, which prepared students to become rural school teachers. Eventually it became too small to meet the rapidly expanding needs of the Luverne school system.In 1956 the present high school was built. The old building was soon razed, but the quartzite rock from which it was built was recycled and used in a house that the late writer Frederick Manfred built north of Luverne. That house is the interpretive center for Blue Mounds State Park today.
