St. Charles officials are scrambling to avoid a possible delay in a $30-million bond issue scheduled for Sept. 1 to fund the city’s long-debated community and recreational center. Also possible is a delay in the start of demolition work at the site on Interstate 70 between Hawk’s Nest and First Capitol drives.

At issue, city officials say, is whether the city’s partner in the project - the nonprofit ShowMe Aquatics and Fitness organization - can make a $3.5 million payment required when the bonds are issued. 

That’s part of the funding agreement worked out last year between the city and ShowMe. The deal also calls for further ShowMe contributions at later dates.

City officials say the timing of the $3.5 million payment is in doubt because Cullinan Properties - the developer of a planned commercial-residential project at the old Noah’s Ark site - has yet to pay ShowMe for a piece of the Noah’s Ark location owned by ShowMe.

Klinghammer

“If they can’t sell it anytime soon, then, yeah, they may need to delay” their payment to the city, said Councilman Michael Klinghammer.

Councilwoman Laurie Feldman put it this way: “I think it boils down to ’show me the money.’”

Council members, Mayor Patti York and officials of ShowMe and Cullinan say talks between the city, ShowMe and Cullinan are underway to figure out a solution to keep the community center project on schedule. There’s no indication, though, that the project won’t be built.

“Everybody wants to make this work,” the mayor said. Feldman said, however, she thinks it will be tough “to get this all together” in the next 30 days.

Feldman said one idea brought up involves the city buying the ShowMe portion of the Noah’s Ark site from ShowMe and later selling it to Cullinan. However, Feldman said she believes that the council wouldn’t agree to that.

ShowMe at one time had planned to build a swimming and exercise facility at the Noah’s Ark site, but later decided to instead collaborate on a facility with city government at the site of an old Kmart store further west.

York

York said Cullinan and ShowMe have agreed on a price for the ShowMe property at the Noah’s Ark site but it’s unknown when Cullinan would close on the deal. York speculated that Cullinan hasn’t done so yet because of  “cash-flow” issues.

Cullinan’s chief executive officer, Jeff Giebelhausen, confirmed that a tentative price had been worked out but said  “the timing is not right to buy it.” He added that there’s no chance that the purchase would be consummated before September.

In an earlier interview, he said “certainly the economy hasn’t encouraged us to rush out and buy more land” quicker than is necessary.

Belinda Jones, ShowMe’s president and chief operating officer, said ShowMe is “working diligently to move forward” with the agreement worked out with the city and “will put every resource available” to providing the $3.5 million.

She didn’t comment on whether ShowMe could raise enough money from other sources to produce that anount by September without the Cullinan payment.

ShowMe’s founder, Sue Schaeffer, said earlier in the week that the organization remains confident about its capital fundraising campaign although “the speed’s slower than it was” due to the recession.

Klinghammer said among the factors under consideration is the city’s ability to get better prices from contractors now because of the recession. That’s a major reason to get the project moving as scheduled, he said.

“Right now it’s an inexpensive time to build things,” he said. “There’s an awful lot of subcontractors eagerly looking for work and we could get very good pricing.”

On the other hand, Klinghammer said, the council is weighing whether it would be wise to “slow down on building projects” because of the recession and to “pull back a little bit on projects that would be really good to have but aren’t essential.”

Beckering

The bond issue came up only briefly in the public portion of the council meeting Tuesday night. There Councilman Dave Beckering, the lone council opponent last year of the funding deal with ShowMe, said he remains concerned that ShowMe might not come up with its share of the overall cost.

He added that he opposes moving forward with the bond issue at this time, noting that the cost of a separate bond issue planned by the city for overhauling its two sewer treatment plants had increased significantly in recent estimates.

Countering was Councilman Richard Veit, who pointed out that city voters last year had voted overwhelmingly to sell bonds to build the community center.

“I don’t think we should crawl into a shell and not do things” because of the recession, Veit said.

Plans outlined in the city’s summer newsletter call for a groundbreaking ceremony Sept. 10 and demolition of part of the old Kmart building to begin Sept. 14. The timetable calls for the center to open in the spring of 2011.