A grand plan for the Alerus
The Alerus Center's new director, Steve Hyman, seems to be a man with a vision. According to Tu-Uyen Tran's great article, Hyman presented a plan today to Alerus Center Commission members. The plan outlines numerous improvements to the Alerus facility over the next 20 years...improvements totaling more than $30 million.
$30 million more for the Alerus Center? What are all those Alerus-naysayers going to say about this? While $30 million may sound like a lot of money, readers should understand that the money would come from a capital improvement fund that has to be spent on improvements to the Alerus Center. This new spending will not require any new taxes...the funding source is already in place.
I, for one, am very excited that the Alerus Center finally seems to have a leader with a plan. Hyman appears to be proactive and has drawn up a plan which, forecasting the future of the center out to 2030, could potentially go beyond Hyman's time at the facility. Too often, a public facility is built and then the investment basically ends then and there. The facility slowly becomes outdated and unusable. This seems to be something that we have experienced many times over the years. The Civic Auditorium was never truly upgraded and it now sits virtually empty and may be destined for the wrecking ball. The GFK terminal has become a dinosaur and has limited Grand Forks' potential in some ways. I'm glad to see that the city's biggest public building project ever now has a leader that seems determined to not let the Alerus Center slip into the irrelevancy that such projects often seem doomed to face.
What do you think about Hyman's plans? What improvements do you want to see at the Alerus Center over the next five years? Twenty years? We only saw a brief glimpse of Hyman's powerpoint on WDAZ today...perhaps someone (Tu-Uyen?) could provide us with that powerpoint so we can see the plans?
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7 comments:
As Steve how many Christmas Trees he owns...
What would I like to see?? how about a cost effective location to hold events like The Venue in Fargo? someplace so Jade Presents or other promoters would want to bring shows to? Sorry, but I am in no way interested in seeing Cher or Neil Diamond. It gets tiring to drive to Fargo to see every show I would like to see.
Plan B doesn't do it. Sorry. All I'm seeing is overpriced tickets for a two band line up. what was Lifehouse again? 39 bucks for two bands?
Where as I go to the Venue and for 25 bucks I can get a 3 band show that lasts 3 hours, and not get beer dumped on me. These aren't even no name bands either. national touring acts that are on major/indie labels such as Warner and Epitaph.
I'd also like to see some form of color coordination by the alerus Center also... is it just me or does anyone not understand why there is green neon on the top of the building when all the logo's are blue and white? Why don't we throw some Red into the mix!? oh wait! we did that with Canad inns!
Also. Get rid of the ugly Incandescent signs that announce the events on I-29 and on 42nd. Get the new LED boards even the Cell phone stores have! nothing says outdated like those do!
The green neon was planned and put into place when the place was going to be named the "Aurora" and is meant to simulate the northern lights. The ugly signs on the south and west sides of the building need to go, and be replaced with something decent. I agree about the incandescent lights vs. an LED light board.
I aslo agree very strongly that it is about time to have a strong leader at the Alerus. Someone needed to be concerned about the future of the building.
See, the thing about the Alerus is that, unlike many other public facilities such as parks or schools, it not only has the capacity to make a profit, it's expected to. So then why is the Alerus still surviving as a parasite on the rest if Grand Forks?
Improvements are great, but to me it looks like the Alerus doesn't see enough people paying to see/do things in a year to justify laying out $30 million right now.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/parkinsons_law_in_full_force_at_the_alerus_center/
This blog is giving me Parkinsons.
Wow Whistler... I'm not going to debate your blog. But I find it kind of amusing that you assume you can slash jobs just because you think they are redundant without even knowing the job description or work they cover...
You've now just slashed the booking into the receptionist. now the receptionist goes on her two week vacation.. who now does the booking fall on for those two weeks? who is going to get more work?
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