Nature center may be nipped in the bud

An environmental learning center planned for the city of Prior Lake was dealt a fatal blow after a foundation in Wayzata pulled back a large part of the promised funding for the project.

Jeffers Foundation CEO Paul Oberg told the city of Prior Lake and the Prior Lake-Savage school district that it would take back $620,000 of the total $1.12 million it had devoted to the project, since it was impossible to tell when the building would actually be built.

The $1.6 million "interpretive center," planned for city land adjacent to Jeffers Pond Elementary, would have been a collaboration between the environmental foundation, the city and the school district. But the project was put on hold after a school district referendum failed in November, so the district can't afford the money it pledged to operate the center.

"Until there is some certainty as to the date of construction of the proposed building," Oberg wrote in a Feb. 8 letter, "Jeffers is unwilling to expend or commit its funds available for grant purposes. There are other projects which now have a higher priority with respect to the use of such funds."

Oberg, who has long felt that the city of Prior Lake had been dragging its feet on the project, said he doesn't think it will ever get built.

"We've got to have people that want it as much as we do," he said.

Frank Boyles, city manager of Prior Lake, disagreed with the assertion that Prior Lake has dragged its feet, and pointed out that on March 3 the City Council will discuss what the council can do, if anything, to move forward with different incarnations of the project.

Operating the building

In 2004, the Jeffers Foundation sold land to the school district for Jeffers Pond Elementary, which opened in September 2006. The land was part of the estate of Robert Jeffers, the foundation benefactor. At the time, the foundation gave the city $500,000 to help build an environmental learning center for the district's use on adjacent city land.

The city has until 2011 to use the money, but Oberg grew frustrated waiting and tried to speed up the process by offering an additional $620,000 for the project, with the condition that eight acres of city land next to another school be put under a conservation easement, which means it can't be developed.

That money, including the $280,000 promised by the city, and the $200,000 dedicated by the school district to equip the building, would have been enough to build it. But the school district, which is starting to cut $1.1 million from the budget for the next school year, couldn't commit to the estimated $20,000 to $30,000 to operate the building.

The dedicated $620,000 is about equal to what Jeffers expects to spend on grants in 2008, Oberg said.

Environmental education

For several years, the Prior Lake-Savage district has put a strong emphasis on environmental education and has even included it in the district's strategic plan. The district is in the third year of a five-year agreement with the Jeffers Foundation, with the foundation providing at least $150,000 a year for school environmental programs.

But Boyles said the school district -- which likely won't be able to open a newly built elementary school in Savage either -- simply can't afford it.

"How in the world do you justify having a brand-new school sitting closed, but you're putting some funds into an environmental learning center?" he asked. "People might see the learning center as being important, but not as important as the three Rs that kids are going to get at the school."