By Lori EhdeThe failed Prairie Expo tourism center on I-90 near Worthington may become home to an ag science center, according to an agreement in process between several involved parties.The purchase would ease the burden of Rock County and the other eight counties of the Southwest Regional Development Commission in repaying the debt on the property.The Minnesota Department of Finance had assumed ownership of the $8 million property in July, with stipulations that the former owner, SRDC, pay back the state over time.The state put a sale price of $700,000 on the property, and in recent weeks, Prairie Holdings, an umbrella organization of several local agriculture business, offered to buy it.According to the purchase agreement, Prairie Holdings will pay $400,000 in cash to the Department of Finance, and SRDC will pay the remaining $300,000 to the state over 30 years at no interest.Since the land will now generate property taxes for Nobles County and the City of Worthington, the agreement stipulates that those two entities each repay roughly $600,000, for a total of $1.2 million, to the Department of Finance over the next 15 to 30 years.The state will forgive the remaining $3.5 million of the outstanding $5.5 million bond it floated SRDC to fund the project.SRDC was scheduled to take official action on the agreement at its meeting today.Glen Thuringer, director of the Worthington Regional Economic Development Corporation, was involved in negotiating the purchase agreement.When asked if he thought the end result was fair for all parties, Thuringer said, "One of the more important driving factors, more than fairness, was how can we get the project done."He said the opportunity to sell the property came on a tight time frame."Had time not been such an issue, more of the repayment could have been spread across the nine counties (of SRDC)," Thuringer said. "But because of the timing with the private party involved, this is the agreement we ended up with."Who is the new owner?Under the Prairie Holdings umbrella are several different entities dealing in agriculture and livestock. Among them is Newport Labs, Worthington.The Star Herald was unable to get a complete list of the Prairie Holdings companies and their owners, but all are located in the Worthington and Nobles County area except one from Iowa.They include an elevator, veterinary clinic, consulting firm and a research group that develops herd-specific vaccines, among other things.Prairie Holdings has indicated it may start operations in the Expo building within a couple months.What does this mean for Rock County?Rock County Commissioner Bob Jarchow is a member of the SRDC Board. He gave Rock County Commissioners a sneak preview of the agreement at their Sept. 2 meeting."What this means to us, is instead of paying $15,000 a year (on the debt) for 30 years, we’ll now have to pay $750 to $850 a year for 30 years," Jarchow said.SRDC is an organization that helps its member counties connect with state grants and services. Rock County pays $8,000 per year to belong to SRDC, which recently has funded things like Kenneth’s new waste water lagoon and the Senior LinkAge line.As a rule, membership has been valuable for Rock County residents, But Rock County Commissioners have never supported SRDC’s role in Prairie Expo.The project was promoted as an economic draw to all the communities featured in the barn-like structure on I-90. The idea was that travelers would stop there and find out where they wanted to visit based on the information at Prairie Expo.Rock County Commissioners didn’t believe in the project, but agreed to chip in $5,000 as a matter of supporting SRDC, which they did believe in. That compares with Pipestone Counties $20,000, which is more in line with what the other member counties paid.After being open for just a year, it closed its doors in August 2001.All totaled, Rock County’s loss in Prairie Expo is less than $30,000, counting the $5,000 up front donation, an $18,000 loan and roughly $7,000 it owes on the bond."So, it could have been a lot worse," Jarchow said at the Sept. 2 board meeting.
