The request was made during a workshop prior to the supervisors’ regular meeting.

According to City Manager David Fierke and Councilman Dave Flattery, the Boston Centre has two elevators – one is currently inoperable and one that “stops working at least once a week.”

Flattery was approached more than a year ago by the Boston Centre Association about funding to rehabilitate the building and fix the two problematic elevators. Each floor of the Boston Centre is owned separately with common owners and shared elevators, much like a condominium.

According to Flattery, several of the businesses currently in the Boston Centre have considered leaving because of the problems with the elevators.

“My concern as a city councilmember and also as a banker is that we can’t afford to have another empty building downtown,” said Flattery.

If the project were to be financed, they would begin with fixing just one elevator and fix the second at a later date.

Flattery said that the elevator itself would cost approximately $340,000. With adding necessary HVAC, electrical, roof access, a boiler, cooling tower, and building a staircase to the elevator for safety purposes, the project total is approximately $650,000.

According to Flattery, the county is being asked to provide $100,000 for the project, though the city asked that it be a grant and Supervisor Niki Conrad believed that in past conversations it was said to be a loan.

Additional funding would come from a downtown development corporation loan in the amount of $180,000, $65,000 from the Boston Centre, MIDAS Council of Governments providing a $240,000 loan, and Availa Bank would provide the remaining amount in a bank loan.

The City of Fort Dodge would backstop 50 percent of the bank loan. Flattery said the property owners would be assessed approximately $3,800 monthly to service the required debt on the new elevator.

“I feel this project is important for the future of downtown,” said Flattery.

When discussing the economic impact of losing businesses in the Boston Centre, it was stated that approximately 45 individuals are employed in the top floors of the building, in addition to the employees of Olde Boston’s Restaurant and Pubon the first floor.

“If the building becomes vacant, it becomes a burden to the city and the taxpayers will have another vacant building,” said Flattery. “In my opinion, $100,000 long term is a good investment.”

“I think the general feeling that I had had was that the economic impact of these companies no longer being downtown far outweighed the amount the county would be contributing to fix this issue,” added Conrad. “There is some concern about setting a precedent, but I think overall at least in the conversations that I have had, I think this is the right thing to do.”

While nothing was decided in the workshop, Conrad said the supervisors are reviewing past conversations in order to narrow their collaborative options.