From Deseret News archives:
Unity Center cost $130,000 a year
City staffers had attempted to craft the new civic center so the city wouldn't have any ongoing costs, but Public Services director Rick Graham said the city will have to pay some annual operating and maintenance bills.
He said the center is slated to open in September 2006, a few months later than planned.
Graham gave the council its first peek at the center's design, which impressed most, if not all, council members. Still, there were concerns that the city still does not have signed agreements with potential outside service providers, who will operate the fitness, educational and health components.
"I am very concerned about us getting these partnerships done," Council Chair Dale Lambert said.
Also, council members were concerned that construction bids would come in much higher than the money the city has to build the center. The city has $4.5 million donated by the Alliance for Unity and Jim Sorenson to build the center, a key cog of Mayor Rocky Anderson's solution to the Main Street Plaza fray.
"I just know that in a couple of recent major projects in the city, when they actually got to the construction phase, they were double what they thought," Council member Jill Remington Love said.
The building will be built according to green building standards, as will all future city buildings, based on an executive order Anderson signed last week.
