DETROIT LAKES — Members of Minnesota Flyers Gymnastics and Fitness presented expansion plans for their facility to the Detroit Lakes City Council during their June 14 regular meeting.

The organization sees around 500 kids per week spread across their gymnastics, ninja and other programs, said Leesa Lindgaard, director of the Minnesota Flyers, but they still have to turn down about 40 kids every 10 weeks during program enrollment due to full classes. The new expansion would change that.

"I have to say, 'I'm sorry, we don't have the space and capacity in our current building to provide fitness opportunities for these kiddos,'" said Lindgaard. "We have an average of about 500 kids walking in and out of our doors every single week for 12 months."

Lindgaard played a short video for the council members showcasing some of the programs available at the facility, and then explained why she felt the facility must expand to keep up with their growing popularity among area kids.

This year, at the end of May, the group piloted a day camp program which was extremely successful, in addition to their regular programming.

"Parents could drop those kiddos off and they could spend the whole day with us," she said. "We had lots of structured activities, we had educational activities throughout the whole day, and we provided lunch and two snacks. We maxed out at 50 kids and we had to turn kids away after that."

Under the organization's expansion proposal, the building size would more than double, going from 12,000 square feet to a proposed 30,400-square-foot facility.

"It doesn't run into any of the hockey arena (space), or the Food Pantry, with it being currently there," she said. "We also provide field trips that are affordable for schools, churches and other groups."

She also said their preliminary estimates for the expansion project cost is between $2.75 million to $3 million, but that money would be raised and financed by the non-profit themselves. They would, however, need city council approval for the expansion plans before they could begin raising designated funds for the capital project.

"We have charitable gaming and then fundraisers that we plan to start doing, however, I can't start any of that fundraising without approval (of the city council) to move forward with this," said Lindgaard.

Members of the Detroit Lakes City Council did not approve the expansion project outright after Lindgaard's presentation, but they did authorize the city engineer to review the plans and provide a recommendation at the next council meeting in July.

Specifically, council members want the city engineer to focus on the parking lot improvements since the city would most likely need to cover those costs, as the property owner for the Minnesota Flyers facility and the nearby Kent Freeman Arena.

Also presenting an update to the city council about the future of the Kent Freeman Arena was Chad Carlblom, chair of the Detroit Lakes Sports Arena Commission.

Carlblom said, after noticing more deficiencies with the 60-year-old Kent Freeman Arena One, the commission recommended rebuilding the original arena instead of just giving the front exterior a face lift and adding to the facility, which were the focus of the commission's preliminary plans presented to the city council during their work session in December 2021 .

"That project really skips over the notion of addressing the big elephant in the room, we've got a 1961 building that is, no offense, it is eligible for early Social Security next year and the reality is, it is starting to tell us that it is starting to age," said Carlblom during the meeting. "Every project we encounter down there, we are finding that it is exponentially more expensive to improve these projects."

For example, he said, they were going to paint and install new fixtures in one of the Arena One locker rooms and discovered the plumbing was still 1960s plumbing, which added an additional $20,000 to replace, tripling the arena's initial project budget for the minor aesthetic improvements.

"It's starting to show its age, and it's starting to speak to us," Carlblom said. "The dehumidification systems went out last year in both arenas, which we're budgeted at $50,000 to replace that, and I'm hopeful that is going to cover that cost. The point of this conversation is that we're really investing money into a facility that is starting to tell us, or at least ask us, to pause and think if this is a good investment of these dollars into infrastructure on a building that is aging."

Carlblom also suggested, if the council were to approve an Arena One reconstruction project in the future, it would also be a good time to rearrange the footprint of the arena on the city-owned property, which could include the possibility of adding a third sheet of ice.

He explained that if Arena One is reconstructed, they could add a second sheet of ice to the new building that would extend toward Rossman Avenue, with a possible shared chiller that would be more efficient for cooling both arenas.

The current Arena Two, which has its own chiller, could then be used as needed depending on ice commitments from Detroit Lakes High School and the youth hockey program. If a third sheet of ice isn't needed, the chiller could be powered down in Arena Two, staff could install field turf, and then the building could double as an indoor soccer area, or used by other sports or groups.

Ron Zeman, alderman for Ward One, said both the high school and youth hockey programs combined have a total membership of only about 250 kids, which gives him pause about whether the city should commit a large amount of money toward a rebuilt arena and extra ice sheet.

"I'm looking at ice arenas in Fergus Falls, I'm looking at Thief River [Falls], East Grand Forks, they are all struggling to pay for their programs, said Zeman. "They've got beautiful buildings ... and the big thing is how to keep these operational and self-sustaining, and they've got a lot of kids too, but it comes down to kids can't afford this in their families, so how is that going to work out?"

Carlblom said doing nothing is, and will remain, an option, but funding challenges will continue and the building isn't getting any younger.

He also said he will continue to update council members in an effort to be more transparent about the future plans of the Kent Freeman Arena, since some council members thought the commission proceeded too far down the initial plans phase of their previous project without seeking input from the council.