By Mari Radtke
While the 28E agreement between the City of Paullina and the South O’Brien Community School District started getting attention as a budget item by the City of Paullina during last year’s budget discussions. It survived then. The line item has been brought up again, in a more serious way.
On February 3, 2025 the Paullina City Council agenda allowed the council to discuss the City’s “future involvement” with the facility. A second agenda item asked the council to approve “researching the removal of the City…from any involvement” with Swanson Sports Complex. After a motion and second Council-person Nichole Fintel remarked, “We’re not getting anything for it.”She explained that her reading of the 28 E is that if one of the parties is not interested it (Swanson Sports Complex) goes to the other.” She then added that the question needs to go to the City’s legal Counsel. The motion passed. After the vote, Mayor Marlin Sjaarda voiced, “Council wouldn’t go down this route if Council didn’t want to get out of it.”
During the prior Paullina City administration, often driven by the wishes of the Paullina Chamber, people-wise, were one in the same. Two items spoke about at a city council meeting for Swanson was a playground area and a pickleball court.
School District Superintendent Wade Riley shared some of his thoughts on the matter. He said the only recreation at the location, now is baseball and softball. If the point of the complex was for community recreation, it’s not there. He spoke about the condition of the basketball courts. The backboards are cracked. There are no nets. The concrete is cracked. The tennis courts are likewise in poor “dilapidated” condition. When asked specifically about the ideas of a playground and a pickleball court he said, “There has never been any conversation between the city and the school about how to improve it. The ideas were mentioned, almost in passing but there was no collaboration, no plan. If the sports complex was intended to draw people to town for recreation it needs a lot of attention. He also mentioned that the available land seems tight. Parking is and always has been an issue during baseball/softball season.
He took no public position on the potential withdrawal of the city from the sports complex at this point. We are preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. We are trying to be proactive. We have to as a district. Proactive here, for the district, means to answer how to maintain it to a necessary level. Staffing to maintain the fields, a budget to maintain it will be carried by the school alone. Time to give the correct attention to the complex and operate it efficiently. There were a lot of things the city helped with – taking out trees, water.
The baseball and softball events at the complex bring hundreds of people to the community a couple of times each week during June and parts of May and sometimes July. That is a bigger positive people impact on the city than the Paullina Chamber holiday events.
Land and money was bequeathed in the late 1980’s to the City of Paullina by the Swanson Brothers. It is currently unknown if the then school district was also a direct beneficiary. The complex was built with funds provided in the gift and is operated by a 28E agreement. The agreement calls for a Commission of 3, one appointed by the School District, one appointed by the City and one appointed jointly. The City is currently expressing a desire to withdraw from the 28E.