By Sara Strong
Even though the Southwest Regional Development Commission would like to forget Prairie Expo ever happened, it's still the first thing people think of when talking "regional development."
And Prairie Expo is still the reason the SRDC made another pitch to its nine member counties for additional funding.
Rock County's Board of Commissioners Tuesday voted to accept a resolution allowing the SRDC to levy an overall additional $232,082 for eight years.
For Rock County's portion of that levy, its property owners will pay a combined additional $17,990 per year from 2003 to 2010.
The SRDC will use those extra levy dollars to cover $1.6 million in debt and keep the SRDC operating.
Rock County Commissioners Wendell Erickson, Ken Hoime and Jane Wildung voted in favor of supporting the extra levy resolution. Commissioners Bob Jarchow and Ron Boyenga voted against it.
Votes were split the same way in November when a levy advance of $18,000 to the SRDC was passed.
The other eight counties also approved the resolution with close votes.
Erickson said, "I don't look at this as Expo support, but RDC support."
He said the SRDC has been useful to the county in road and bridge projects and in giving the county a voice at the federal level through grant writing.
Hoime said small towns in his district have benefited from the SRDC’s services. He said he was undecided about his vote until he did more research on what the organization had accomplished locally.
Commissioners heard from SRDC Director Jay Trusty before they voted Tuesday.
Trusty said he is working to clean up the mess left by the Expo, but at the same time he's trying to look toward the organization's future.
Empty asset
The Prairie Expo tourism center has been unused since its closing last August.
Now a nine-member group working under the name Prairie Discovery Inc. is trying to find a suitable use for the building.
PDI's president is Steve Perkins, Luverne.
Not using the available space still costs the SRDC $39,000 in annual insurance payments and $750 a month in utilities.
Finding a suitable use for the Expo building may be more difficult than it first seemed.
The building, built with $5.5 million in state funds, has to serve at least a partial public purpose or the SRDC and its member counties might have to pay that debt back.
The State Department of Finance will determine ahead of time what uses will be permissible, so the SRDC won't be caught off guard and have to pay the debt.