MONTEVIDEO -- In the 10 months that it has owned the community's former school building, the nonprofit Greater Milan Initiative has added a fitness center, used book and thrift store, leased out the full-service kitchen, and has hosted classes ranging from English as a second language for the community's Pacific Island residents to home canning for new gardeners. And yet the building's most important role has been simply to serve as a place for people of all ages in the community of Milan to meet one another.
"This is our gathering place," Milan resident Anne Kanten told the members of the Chippewa County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.
Jan Link, Kanten and other members of the Greater Milan Initiative led a cross-section of people from the community to the commissioners' meeting to seek county support for the school.
Link said the Greater Milan Initiative is working toward making the former elementary school building into a financially self-supporting operation. It's hoped that eventually it will be possible to raise revenue by leasing space in the building for everything from day care and office use to small retail shops.
But Link and others from the community said it will take time to reach those goals. They are asking the county to consider providing $10,000 toward the facility's 2009 budget. The county's support could be reduced in future years if goals for revenue can be reached, they told the commissioners.
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The Lac qui Parle Valley School District agreed to sell the approximate 49,000-square-foot facility to the local organization last year for $1. The Greater Milan Initiative has secured grant funds and is currently in the process of completing an energy audit to reduce costs for heating and cooling the building.
Link and others said the project has strong community support. There are a number of residents working aggressively to find tenants and new uses for the building, she said.
The Rev. Tom Opoien, pastor of the Kviteseid Lutheran Church, said the community's use of the building as a community center could be a model for other small towns. It's importance, he said, is in "having a place to gather together and play, to meet one another when things are good instead of waiting until it's bad," he said.
The commissioners made no commitment at this time, but said the budget request would be addressed as they work on preparing the county's budget in the month ahead.
