MASON CITY – Mason City councilman Travis Hickey stepped out of line Thursday night and drove a hard bargain that paid dividends for taxpayers even as most of the city council was ready to hand out $150,000 to a hotel developer with no questions asked.
One after anther, the city council at a special meeting Thursday night in the library bestowed praise upon the latest version of the never-ending Renaissance project and hotel developer – David Rachie of Gatehouse Capital – to arrive in town. The scene was set: Young hockey players were in attendance to melt hearts, Councilman John Lee sported his Mohawk jersey (he left his ice skates at home), greedy bankers marched to the public podium to lavish the good news, former councilman Max Weaver went to the podium to offer criticism and alternatives to the current plan, city administrator Brent Trout was called up to rebut his remarks – the spin cycle we’ve seen before was in motion.
Stepping out of line was councilman Paul Adams, who voiced concerns about how the city might get its $150,000 up-front gamble back if things go wrong and asked some tough questions of Rachie and administrator Trout. But the real work was done by councilman Travis Hickey, who point-blank told David Rachie he “didn’t like” the $150,000 start-up cash the city was set to hand over for “pre-development” work on a hotel connected to the complicated downtown development project. Hickey has been pushing for a better deal from Gatehouse for weeks, even as city staff, the rest of the city council and the mayor simply sat back and were ready to move ahead with little or no prodding of Gatehouse to do better for Mason City. Mayor Eric Bookmeyer and some other council members looked at Hickey with visible consternation as he brought Rachie to the public podium and told him Gatehouse wasn’t investing enough in the project up front as G8 Development – the ousted hotel developer of choice in the Renaissance project – has already done, to the tune of $600,000. That was enough for Rachie to give in and tell the council he would hand over to the city any study and work completed using Mason City’s $150,000 investment.
As Rachie was ready to cave and make the concession, Mayor Eric Bookmeyer complained of “heartburn” at the table over making the investment – something he had never previously mentioned. Rachie re-assured he was OK with giving the city any studies the $150,000 paid for, and a motion was made to amend the agreement with Gatehouse Capital so that the city would at least get the pre-development study (which could cost $20,000 or more) for sure out of its $150,000 investment. The motion passed unanimously and the city is now ready to make the $150,000 investment in a pre-development plan for Gatehouse Capital to develop a hotel, museum, walkway to the Music Man Square and more.
Everything now hinges on a November 7 election, where voters will decide on $18.5 million in bonds for an arena in Southbridge Mall that will be dominated by ice use for at least 6 months of the year.
I did not make it to the meeting – is it
true Adams voted for it after some of the others said something to him??
Youth Hockey 2 million dollars?
Youth Hockey controls arena fro 6 months.
Youth Hockey eliminates any other use throughout the ENTIRE WINTER.
Youth Hockey books are YET to be vetted. Do they show a five year history of running as profitable? Can they support this MUCH larger arena? Who pays the utility bills when they control 1/2 of it’s overall timeframe of use?
summer concerts are a dream that will cause additional expenses.
What this doesn’t do:
Anything for anyone outside of hockey families.
Fill the building vacancies(hockey arena) at the Fair grounds? ——Where are those additional rental/utility dollars coming from? Who maintains the OLD hockey building?
this is a mess and needs a HUGE NO VOTE.
We all know that who ever wrote get over it and move on is one of the passel of bullies we are dealing with.
So don’t take it too hard, it figures and they all will be gone soon enough.
Nice work Travis. You can be the council member who helps expose the cover up and conflicts of interest in the Jodi Huisentruit case. All it takes is one to start asking some tough questions.
http://northiowatoday.com/2016/12/30/retiring-state-representative-says-bookmeyer-other-mason-city-officials-stonewalled-him-in-huisentruit-investigation/
What a pathetic collection of elected leaders. We all knew that Hickey and Solberg were mindless clowns, eagerly voting in favor of the mayors ideas. But now the coward Adams is afraid to make enemies and votes like a sheep. So long for the integrity he promised during his campaign. Schoneman is ever chasing anything with a dollar sign on it, so long as it benefits/profits him. I am still unsure as to Lee and Shickle’s motivation, other than Lee’s wife’s reality business and probably contributions to Shickles bank account. Not a one of them is performing the job that they were elected to do. PATHETIC!
Dick Neely, rather than get on a cheezy news website and criticize
people who put themselves out there via comments, why don’t you grow a set of man balls and put your name on the ballot and get elected. You’re just a coward hanging out in the loser’s lounge?
Would I have your vote? I’m to upstanding and honest for that. Besides, my talents are better suited elsewhere.
First thing he has done right in 2. Terms !
Let’s not forget that Hickey was one of the jerks that bullied Alex Kuhn.
Get OVER IT!!! MOVE ON WITH YOU LIFE!!!!! Don’t you know what RIP means??
Sorry, I won’t forget how some people handled the Prestage proposal or treated Alex Kuhn and others.
well, you should seek treatment for your mental issues then.
Never ever forget what Hickey and Bookmeyer did. They should not even be in office right now after what they did and you want us to forget and move on!?!?
Ask Kuhns family and close friends to “move on, get over it”. I hope tragedy is never forced on your family, and you are expected to forget about it. You sir, are the definition of an idiot.
No. There are lots of us, and we are NOT going to “get over it”. We remember very well who you are, what you did l, and what it led to. And we are not going to let anyone else forget either. If you want to turn the page your best bet is to flee the state just like little dick mathes was forced to do.
As a mature adult, Mr. Kuhn got in way over his head on several angles of the prestage project, including his conflict with his employer who was involved with the project, not to mention his personal life. So to place blame on others is immature. Tragedies happen in life and I see those who choose to blame a specific person are probably the ones that think it is always someone else’s when an accident happens or life doesn’t go their way. As an adult Mr. Kuhn made his own choice, whether good or bad. Let the subject rest people. Quit acting so childish.
WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! Hickey and this council just voted to GIVE gatehouse $150,000 and we will NOT get it back! When we ALL go out to VOTE this Bad Deal down in November, we will forfeit the $150,000 gift, that should come out of Mr Trout’s huge paycheck. This will make about $1 million down the drain on this mess, so far!!! Vote NO on Nov. 7th and vote all council members up for re-election OUT and then hopefully we can fire Trout.
Whatever. Hickey go to Hollywood.
We all know you could care less what citizens want. Can’t wait for h you to be gone.
Ice? Fun for a handful. Pick something for everyone. I can picture out of towners, oh what is this place? A kids hockey little arena. Oh that’s out. A museum of what? Unless it’s close to the Smithsonian forget it!
Have you people not traveled any place? With cool things in a town, for EVERYONE. Duh.
Bookmeyer aren’t you sick of yourself? Still at it just for your own sake. Can’t wait for November!
Matt, why are you showering Hickey with such adoration, and praise. All he achieved with his so-called protest was a copy of Gatehouse’s feasibility study, not the elimination of the $150,000 developer’s “Fee”.
I would be very interested in finding out how the youth hockey association will be able to come up with 2 million dollars?
That’s a awful lot of bake sales. Someone please tell me how that will be possible?
Exactly.
I would like to see some form of legal commitment from them or an accredited financial institution guarantee.
They crow about “up to 2 million”, but what does that mean?
1.9M, 1.5M, 1M, 500K?
Whatever they do not come up with will be payed for by us taxpayers.
And the total estimated cost of the arena is $12 Million.
They “pledge” up to $2 Million yet they want total control of the arena for 6 months plus out of the year.
So they want 50% (plus) usage and control, yet pony up less than 17% of the cost.
Bullshit
Yep, all this for a minority hockey club that wants to control a project and limit the use of the facility by the rest of the citizens who would enjoy other entertainment. The hockey people are a very selfish group of snobs.
What do you think a ice arena is? Have you morons ever been to Wells Fargo Arena.They cover the ice for events.It’s not like your going to bring in entertainment that’s worth a crap.
Thanks for the name calling. Should we include you in the group of morons too? I’ve been to many ice arenas and yes they can cover the ice for other events, but there are many additional issues to deal with when doing this. I highly doubt that this project includes the cost for dealing with the added equipment to accomplish such a feat like covering the ice. And Mason City and the citizens just continues to prove how inept it’s community is at being financially responsible
You are right. There are additional costs. But those don’t come to light until after we have agreed as a community to pay for this. Then the REAL number comes out. When was the last time you heard of a project this size coming in under budget?
We, the group that supported the Prestage development and additional businesses associated with the great project are still waiting for the People vs. Prestage group to come forward with their business development plans and ideas in detail. It’s been a year and they have yet to provide us with solid evidience of the recruited companies they have been in negotiations with to move to their beloved community. That group is nothing more than a bunch of fear mongers and troublemakers
maybe we should bring back to the table the garbage burning plant. those are the projects GREAT communities are built around.
Forget this downtown crap. Build a new horse arena at the events center. A pole barn and bleachers can’t cost that much. Tell hockey to raise their own money (up to $2million) and remodel the arena they already have. They could even keep YEAR ROUND ice.
DITTO!!!
ditto
Marquart, are you on drugs? Because your representations of what happened at that meeting are totally wrong from what we can see in the video. If you can’t be accurate you should look for a new line of work.