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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979 11-28 Gethsemane Church terminates its parking lot lease with city THE REVIEW Minnesota dingle Copy 30C WED.,NOV.78, 1979 Gethsemane Church terminates its parking lot lease with city The dispute between the City of wants to renegotiate the lease and forget about the lavatory problems.Fact of the Maplewood and Gethsemane Lutheran about its earlier monetary requests. matter is,"Krause continued,"they knew We think a monetary consideration about the need in previous years and did Church over the sharing of the church's " parking lot is at a stalemate. should be reflected in the new lease for not prove the lavatories.They told us they That's'the word from the Rev.Paul M. the amount of money we have spent to discontinued the practice of providing Krause,pastor of Gethsemane Lutheran improve the parking lot. toilets because of vandalism that took Church,2410 Stillwater Road. "The church board understands that if place and the high cost of providing these The.church has terminated its 30-year a new lease is not negotiated, the facilities." lease with the city covering the joint use congregation will have to pay the$11,359 In an interview Monday with the of the church parking lot.The city uses in deferred payments. Review,Blank said the church had not We want them to give us some con- informed the city about the restroom the lot for parking for citizens attending " athletic events at the adjacent park, sideration," Krause continued. "They problem."If they had,"Blank said,"we Gethsemane Park. (the city)offer only one side of the pic- would have installed satellite facilities in heodore W. Hegstrom, a church ture.The deferred assessment was made the park.Next year we plan to install trustee,sent a letter to Barry R.Evans, 10 years ago.They say it is enough pay for them(portable restrooms.)" city manager, serving notice that the the use of the parking lot.We are saying The 1980 capital improvement budget lease will be terminated by the church on that we don't think so." for the park department includes a Nov.13,1982.This will leave Gethsemane The present lease is the second one the restroom project for Gethsemane Park. Park without adequate automobile city and church have had on the sharing of About$16,000 has been allocated for the parking facilities. the parking lot. installation of sewer,water and restroom As a result of the lease termination,the Based on the first lease,Blank said,the facilities inside the park shelter. Maplewood Park Board has put oleo- city made relatively inexpensive im- However,Blanksaid,the park board tative hold on a$16,000 project to build provements to the park, like installing read the letter from the church regarding restroom facilities at the park. hockey rinks and lights. These were the termination of the lease at its Nov.19 The park has two hockey rinks, a improvements that could have been meeting. "Based on this written pleasure rink, a shelter, and two new easily removed if the lease was ter- correspondence only, they have put a softball rinks. It receives heavy use minated,Blank explained.The first lease tentative hold on the project,"Blank said. during the summer and fall. The park had a one-year termination clause. "If we have to abandon this site,we land is owned by Gethsemane Church. After these improvements were made, don't want to spend over $16,000 for The church has spent approximately Blank said,a number of citizens asked the restroom facilities." $28,000 improving its parking lot.Earlier city to build a permanent park shelter at Besides the church parking lot,there is it asked the city to pay$5,000 to$6,000 to Gethsemane Park. parking space for 30 to 35 cars next to the help offset part of the cost of blacktopping The park board decided that if it was skating rinks for the winter hockey the lot.The request was turned down. going to build a permanent facility, it program. There also is some on-street By terminating the lease,the church is wanted a long-term'lease that reflected parking available. letting the city know that it is not happy the life of the shelter.This was when the "We are not going to build our own with the current state of affairs,Krause present 30-year lease was negotiated with parking lot near Gethsemane Park said. the three-year escape clause. because we don't own any property down After it was turned down on its first The pastor states that since the city was there," Blank said. "Realistically, the request for financial assistance, the able to renegotiate the lease reflecting its park board wants to reassess the situation church asked the city to pay it a seasonal improvements to the property,the church and talk to the city council about it. rental fee of$500 for the use of the lot.This has decided it wants a new lease which "We have had a very good working request was turned down on Oct.18 by the takes into account the improvements it relationship with the church for the first city council. has made to the property. seven or eight years of the lease.It is in The council denied the request citing it Another sore point in the issue is the the public's best interest that we reach an would be a poor precedent and asked that lack of restroom facilities at Gethsemane agreement with the church and keep this the original agreement stand. Park.Many park users come over to the joint sponsorship going in the future. ,Eric Blank, community services church to use its restroom facilities. "We might very well be in a position to '7 rector,added The rogttest was-turned Krause said that one day this year the renegotiate the lease,and not in a position down because the church has maintained church had three weddings and there to terminate the lease.We want to re-look contrr l of the parking lot, and yet has were three soccer games at the park, at this so we can come up with some good received substantial savings from the which resulted in tremendous use of the solutions to the problem. city. Assessments of $11,359 were church restrooms. The pastor said that he regards the "On that day,I sat down and wrote a church and city as "friends." He also deferred and the city maintenance crew takes care of mowing, fertilizing and letter to the city telling them about the hopes the city and church will be able to weed killing. problem,"he stated. work out a solution to the present The pastor said the church board now "The city says that they did not know stalemate.