 Hello everyone, I'm Melissa Brush and I'm here with some fellow community members. I myself am a community member for the city of Sheboygan and we're here on behalf of Save the Field of Dreams and I want to welcome everyone here and we're going to talk about some information that we think our fellow community members should know about what's going on with the field of dreams. I'm Herb Tyler and I'm Juan Perez. I'm Renee Roosh. I'm Tammy Brab. So we're going to start off with a little bit about our background just for those of you that don't know how this whole thing started and Renee's going to kick us off. Alright, thank you Melissa. So at the beginning of February we received a letter from Aurora indicating that they were going to make some changes to sports athletic facilities and increase health awareness or something regarding health and wellness in our community. And it was a very vague letter. We basically thought well they'll make a donation or something and we kind of disregarded that. Come to find out that they were intending to sell the field of dreams or purchasing the field of dreams from the Sheboygan area school district. Aurora was. Yes, thank you. February 9th we had our community meeting with Aurora, the city and the school board and they unveiled their plans regarding this with the hope to sell the land to Aurora the very next evening at the school board meeting. And after listening to us and we attended the school board meeting, they delayed the vote by two weeks. So basically we got the letter many of us Wednesday, Thursday, about three days before, some on Saturday, some not at all. I think it was less than a hundred people. They said they set it out to 200 but a lot of people in the neighborhood didn't get it. But it was about two lines and basically show up on Monday after we received it on Friday or Saturday. Show up on Monday at six o'clock and most of us weren't going to show up. Mine, I had to dig out of the garbage. They had coffee grounds on it. But then we heard word through the grapevine that they were going to sell the field of dreams. And that is public property, that is school district property, that is taxpayer property. And we just felt more than a one-day notice was important. And we felt like this is, and I think you wanted to mention Renee, that this is a community issue. Yes, exactly. It is a community issue. Field of Dreams is the most utilized park in the city of Sheboygan. At least one of them. You know, for, whether it's soccer, baseball, tight flying picnics, we have the playground there. The deer. The deer, yes. We have children that play kickball there that have pickup games for football. So it's a very widely used facility. It was actually being used, I saw lots of high school girls playing soccer there yesterday. Yeah, that's the high school field for soccer practice. Cross country also practices there for North High School. But it is a community issue. It's not just a neighborhood issue. When we did Sheridan Park became a community issue when the police department wanted to build there. In the city, yeah. You know, I'm sorry, when the city wanted to build there. And it was also a community issue when they wanted to pave Taylor Drive through Maywood. So this is a community issue. This is a landmark piece of property in our city that they want to take away and build. It was designated as a park on the City Master Plan. Sure, sure it is. But I think it's also important to know how do we get to that point. To the point where they made an official announcement, the city, the school, and Aurora. And then gave us 24 hours. Within 24 hours they were going to vote to vote it. I mean they were going to vote to sell it. And we got to that point by having the school board for over a year meet in secret closed sessions discussing the putting together a comprehensive plan, strategy to sell the field of dreams. And why would they take so much time behind closed doors? One can only wonder, but if you look back and I think Melissa mentioned, Sheboygan has a history of protecting its parks. And they knew, should have known that people were going to be, that they were going to be met with a lot of heavy resistance. So the first thing they do is we will meet in private and secret in closed session for over a year. I think it dates back to February of 2013, which is a long time. So they had plenty of time to put together this comprehensive plan, plot and scheme, and then throw it in your phase and we're going to vote and sell it. That's how we got here. People need to understand that the school board really, really led down the public. Yes, they did. Well, and what was disturbing to me as a citizen is they had an input meeting, at least they called it an input meeting, but decisions had already been made by the board members. So their job was to take some heat, let it roll off like water off a duck, and then vote. They did have the vote on February 24th and it was unanimous. There had been a meeting on the 19th at Cooper School and some public input on the 24th at North High School before the vote. But that was basically just just for show. There wasn't any serious input that might have changed anyone's mind or been able to stop the process, at least with the Board of Education. And I know when we attended on February 10th to the school board meeting the day after it was revealed to the public, which was embargoed on the 9th until 1.30 p.m. I mean, it didn't even go in the morning paper. But I know when we attended the school board meeting, some of the school board members said, we're going to vote now. We're not going to stop this and listen to the public. And fortunately, one of the school board members piped up and said, no, I think we should need to listen to the public. We should delay this vote. So they did delay for two weeks. But like you said, it felt more like they were. And a school board member did say that they were told to have their mind made up by the February 10th meeting. So our input didn't matter. Yeah, so that is how we got here. And four weeks later, we're here. So let's talk a little bit about Aurora keeps stating there is just nowhere else to build. I mean, they have to build over one of our parks, and in particular the Field of Dreams. And I'll admit it is a beautiful place, a safe neighborhood right across from their competitor, which seems to be one of their strategies in their building. But let's talk about this want that they have. It really isn't a need because there's lots of properties and lots of areas for them to develop. But let's talk about this one who wants to kick us off. Maybe Tammy. Well, we have done some research over the past couple of years. And with that, we have identified 15 sites that would be appropriate at the beginning of this process. It was 15 sites on the north side central as well as south side of Sheboygan. Since that time, there's been things that have evolved like the buyers buying the mall and so on and so forth, which is great. I'm glad that Sheboygan is growing and expanding, and we want Aurora to grow and expand within the city limits as well. Just not on our park. Just not on our Field of Dreams, right. So, you know, there are 15 other sites throughout Sheboygan. The one thing that I think is most important is to talk about the three locations via three parcels that Aurora already has purchased. There are three places on the south side of Sheboygan where they have purchased land quite a few years ago. In addition to some research, the Field of Dreams was actually site number six that Aurora wanted to purchase. So that's how they purchased the other three, and now they want to purchase Field of Dreams. So when we have approached Aurora on why they want the Field of Dreams, why do you not want to buy number six on your list? And they have not come back with an answer. They can't explain why they even bought the other three parcels and haven't built on it. So, you know, if a company this size just wants to go out and purchase land to stop competitors or for future expansion, that's fine. I think that should be shared, not maybe with us as well as with the city of Sheboygan. So, and one of the other things, too, that a trend that has been happening not only in Sheboygan but other cities, is that it makes sense for Aurora Clinic or for the Aurora Medical Complex that they want to build to build on the south side. You see duplication of services in Sheboygan just because of the way we are expanding. You see culvers on the north side, south side. You see Walmart north side, south side. Restaurants north side, south side. So, to cluster everything and put them in the middle of the city and purchase the Field of Dreams just doesn't make sense. Years ago, the healthcare community, that's what they did. Examples would be like Madison, some other larger cities where they have a cluster of services. And to my understanding, that's what they're trying to do with purchasing the Field of Dreams. However... They don't share medical doctors anymore. They don't share. It used to be years ago you'd share medical doctors. Now it'd just be a duplication of services. Correct. It'd be duplication of services and a cluster of services altogether, which just doesn't make sense with the Sheboygan model. So I think really building on the north side or south side would be most effective for Aurora to take a better look at that and to build on the current land that they already purchased on the south side. Well, just making themselves accessible to Sheboygan County. I mean, it is an outpatient surgery center they're saying with an office building. Well, there's an outpatient surgery center just kitty corner from there. And why they need that much property or say they need that much property when they're only using less than 40% of the land. And I looked at the outpatient surgery center for St. Nicholas that's right across the corner. It's on less than two acres of land, 60 parking spots. Now why does Aurora need 589 parking spots for an outpatient surgery center and using less than 40% of the land? Correct. Well, it's pretty obvious that they have plans much greater than just a surgery center. They're just not willing to share those plans. They don't. Although, well, at the meeting at Praise Fellowship on February 9, it was asked of Dave Grabner if there is a long range plan. No, there isn't. Do you have any other plans for the property? No, we don't. Well, since then we've learned that they do in fact have a plan to put a hospital there. Another duplication. Another duplication. And that would be to replace the one on 7th Street right now. And I think the city planners ought to have that kind of information, ought to know before they make decisions what is your plan? How are you going to use the other properties? Is there going to be a cardiac hospital? Are you going to put in a residential psychiatric unit, a mental health unit? Are you going to put in an orthopedic center? What are your plans overall? Because if they own those properties, obviously have plans. They're just not sharing them with the people. The reason they're doing it the way they're doing it is very simple. If they showed plans to put an office complex or an office building and the same-day surgery center on that site along with a free-standing standalone hospital, it would have met with way more resistance than it has already. But once they own the land and it's rezoned and they've got that built, now they can add the hospital and close the one on 7th Street. And that's unquestionably in their plans. Well, you know, someone has said, you know, well, it's just going across the street. The park's just going across the street. But, you know, when's it going to be before the school district again is having to drink money and has been since 2009 as far back as the budgets can see and we haven't fixed that budget and we're worse shaped than we are today that they're not going to sell the East parcel to them too. And before you know it, they'll have that as well if they weren't already planning to do that. I find it interesting that they claim that we're just moving the park across the street. Well, you can't- when do you just move a park? You know, that just doesn't even make sense. You know, you're taking 35 acres of current green space and you're going to replace it with 17 acres. That's half the amount. That does not make sense. It doesn't compute. You're setting a terrible precedent for the city if you allow this to happen. Saying our parks are for sale. Saying, you know, nothing is sacred, green space does not matter. As soon as, you know, another corporation needs land, well, we'll just sell Cleveland Park. We'll sell End Park. You know, there's plenty of property out there that have lush green space. You know, what happens to Evergreen? Maywood. I mean, when does it stop? When does it end? Well, they're justifying it based on the tax revenue. Their proposal said that they're estimating $200,000 a year in taxes. People have to understand, our Alderman and the citizens of Sheboygan that they're going to build somewhere in Sheboygan. You already said that. They are going to build somewhere. That tax revenue is going to be there no matter what. And those jobs created. And those jobs that are going to be created will be there no matter what. So it's very difficult, given that, to justify what they're doing on a city park or a school district park. There's just a lot of fishy stuff going on. I think Tammy alluded to it. Why would Aurora want to destroy the Field of Dreams? Is it because they want to eliminate competition or what is it? But if we go back to when the school board was for over a year negotiating close session and secret, they actually went out and got three separate appraisals for that property. One appraisal was for $1.5 million. One appraisal was for $1.275 million. And then the other one was for $2 million, $275 million. Well, Aurora paid them more than the actual appraisal. So that by itself tells us that there's something more going on than just that. And what is going on is going on between the school district and Aurora. I mean, these people are in cahoots. They've been cahooting for over a year. And nobody seems to know because they have secretly kept it away from us. They've done shafted us quite frankly. Yeah. And they do. You know, I have over 100 acres just south of the Boots and Farm. They're on south of the Chevy dealership there on South Business Drive. So, you know, I don't know why. Maybe that's their plan B if this all falls through. And here's the other thing that Debbie pointed out earlier that this particular, the field of dreams is worth $2 million, $2.275 million. They offer $2.5 million. But it turns out that the east side, which is last land, is worth over $2.5 million. Yeah. So how does that come into play? So somebody's playing with numbers to our detriment, to the public's detriment. And that, to me, is incredibly wrong. And it's beyond me why they would do that. Something's going on. And that east parcel has contamination, and no one has determined who's going to clean that up and who's going to get rid of that. And it's still a sass of $2.5 million with the contamination. Right. And five acres of wetlands. And the wetlands. Yeah, it's five acres of wetland. And I've seen the drawings for the fields that they want to put over there, two baseball diamonds, a parking lot, a restroom, two soccer fields. And I'm just telling you, you're going to have to get in your canoe to get your soccer ball back. Yes. Or you're going to have to run across the street to get your baseball because it is not going to fit. And according to the Among Association, they had shared that those wetlands have been growing and expanding. So they're not able to grow their gardens on the plots that they actually rent back from the city. So that's a concern not only for us, but for them as well. Well, let's go ahead and share the cost information on the Bootson property. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about costs. You know, when you start hitting the wallet and the city taxpayers, you know, I don't know about you guys, but I feel a little tapped out. And when I got my assessment of my property that it has been lowered, I'm feeling even more tapped out. So let's talk a little bit about the Bootson property. You know, it sounds like a wonderful thing. And I think it was a wonderful gift that Mrs. Bootson gifted to the city, gifted to all of the taxpayers and all of the citizens. This 54 acres designed to add recreation space. And future generations. And for future generations, right, to add. I don't think her intention was ever to take away from another park. So to add to our space. But looking at the Rettler Corporation's numbers, I took a look at those numbers and got them from the city. So Aurora and the school district have all seen these numbers. Rettler Corporation is an architectural firm, landscaping firm, who professionally does this. And they did a preliminary cost estimate for the amount of money that Aurora is donating to this project for $3.1 million. If we as taxpayers do not add an additional $2.5 million, add a minimum because this was a preliminary cost. So once you get in there, who knows what you're going to find. But and most of the work is just on leveling the land. But we will have to put in $2.5 million or somebody will. Because if we don't, all we're going to get is five grass fields, not tournament grade style. We're going to get parking and we may, if we have any money left over, get some walking trails. They may be dirt for a while. But if we don't contribute an additional $2.5 million, we will have no concessions, no restrooms. We'll have no shelters that were promised. We'll have no signage. We'll have no lighting anywhere, which was promised. No pavement structures for the shelters. The tournament grade fields, what that takes is, that's quite a bit of extra money actually. It's an additional $64,000 a field that we're not put in the budget. That's drainage and topsoil and that makes them higher quality fields. It's not Lambo field, but it's makes them nicer. And that's what makes them tournament style. And there'll be no landscaping. So I can tell you with five fields, with some grass on it, it's worse than we, way, way worse than we have now that we currently own. We own it. It's paid for, free and clear. It'll be way worse and there's no way we're going to attract tournaments with that. Well, what's happened is common to every governmental agency, be it city, county, state, or federal. The people proposing these things always underestimate the cost. They're always, what do they call them, cost overruns? Always cost overruns and they always overestimate the amount of revenue. So for example, with the marina, it costs more than it was supposed to cost and the revenue has been substantially less and we're still pumping money into supporting the marina. The same thing happened with the destruction of the Boston stores. Costs more than was anticipated than was proposed. They're saying that this will generate $200,000 of taxes. The St. Nicholas Hospital Same Day Surgery Center generates $75,000 in taxes. So will it, maybe it will, maybe it won't. But it's a nice number to throw out there. You have to also consider the upkeep on the books and property and the maintenance. You came up with comparables from Appleton, Melissa, and there for 15 fields, they're spending about a half a million dollars a year. So if we have five fields, we're talking $150,000, $160,000 a year for maintenance. If we have 10 fields, then we're talking $300,000, $320,000 a year and that's going to have to come out of the general budget in Sheboygan. And right now we can't pay for fixing roads and infrastructure. The other thing that they're looking at when they build the Phase 1 project is $800,000 from the room tax. Last year we had $660,000 in room tax. 30% of that that you can spend by the city that doesn't go into tourism would have been $198,000. So four years of that room tax can take care of that $800,000. However, that's money that had been in the general fund before, so that's coming out of some other pot also. And then you'll have the maintenance besides. So it seems to me that it's going to be very, very difficult to ever improve it because the organizations that would use it primarily the football and soccer groups in town can't make ends meet now. So they're not going to be able to generate enough income to build another $2.5 million worth of structures and pay for $300,000 a year in maintenance. But none of those numbers have been put out there. And the city has committed us, the taxpayers, to maintain it until the football and soccer clubs can. And I believe, Juan, you've mentioned in the past that the clubs have come to the city sometimes. Oh, Shiboyan has a long history of dealing with private clubs, becoming elite clubs and so forth. So when they say we're going to allow everybody to play, sometimes they don't, they become elite. But beyond that, they also come and go very frequently. Parents divorce, parents move, kids grow up, people lose interest. The fundraising doesn't come out the way it should be. So forever the city has been picking up that slack. They can't pick up this slack and I really believe they're not going to be able to in this situation. Everything goes to flop. And we're going to have a blight area over there. That's basically what we're going to have. Another good example beyond the Boston store and the marina is the museum that just closed down. That was one not long ago that a private entity, not a club, but more or less the same thing, decided they wanted that, they bought it, the city held. Now they're out of business because they can't afford to keep it. It just goes on and on and on. And for the city to rely on those kinds of promises, because that's how they are, it's a promise. There's nothing legally binding them to do what they say they're going to do. So for the city to rely on those kinds of promises, it's just incredible. It's just incredible. I'll be after the taxpayers. Sure. Where are the ones that are going to pick up the slack? Your house value is going to go even further down. Your taxes are going to go up. And somebody needs to explain that to me like a three-year-old because I don't get it. So what can we do? What can we do? Well, that's an interesting point. I really do think that there is a solution all this. If that $5.1 million that Aurora is saying is a donation to the city for building in the city and not just to build over the field dreams, if they take that $5.1 million and they donate that, and they don't build over the field dreams, they build somewhere else. They either build on one of the properties that they have or, better yet, buy another commercial property from us. We have some more for sale. Buy that and don't build over the field dreams. They could take that full $5.1 million and put it towards the boots and property. They could actually do phase one for $5.1 million, and they'd have a little bit of maintenance money left over as well. And they could have the tournament-grade style fields, and we could still have the field of dreams where the North High is practicing, and we still need those fields. My understanding from the soccer clubs is that we need additional space or could use additional space. So if we're taking away from the field of dreams, we're not adding additional soccer space. I do have a question of why it was turned into soccer and football and why nobody else got to decide that the boots and property that was gifted to the city, why we didn't get to decide what it was. But we'll can talk about that in just a minute when I finish my point. So if they gift the $5.1 million to the boots and property, let's say that the city does want that, the taxpayers, then Aurora could build somewhere else. They could expand their services, hopefully on the south side and reach all of our community and the county as well. And then we could still have the field of dreams. We could have the boots and property. Aurora could still build. I mean, that really is a win-win-win for our kids, for the community, for the neighborhoods. And moms would have their gardens. And we'd still have their gardens. Yeah, we'd save, you know, all of that movement that we're spending money on, we just don't need to move anything. And we can still have the boots and development and Aurora could still have a new surgery center. So as community members, you can call your aldermen, call your alder persons. Email them, call them, let them know what you think of this. Let them know that you are against the rezone. You can show up to the Common Council meeting April 8th at 6 p.m. That's in the Common Council chambers. There will be a public hearing where anyone can speak on this issue. You do not have to pre-register. Just show up. You'll get three minutes to talk about this. You can simply say, I'm against the rezone. Vote against it. But many of these aldermen have already made up their mind, so it's important to call now before that meeting. Well, it'll be important to speak publicly and openly. I think it's also important to call the alderman as many times as you can to see if we can try to convince them not to rezone that property because a lot of them have already made up their minds because Aurora, secretly, and they like to do things in secret, has been pounding on these aldermen so that they can vote to rezone. Meeting with them one-on-one. Meeting with them one-on-one. I mean, they've been debating this issue for almost a month outside the council chambers where it should be, and they've been debating it in the offices of Aurora individually. Now, where that constitutes a walk-in quorum is yet to be found out, but what they've done is they've met with each one individually to come up with a pre-determined outcome. Let your voices be heard. It's important to remember who the older people represent. And do they represent Aurora? No, they represent the people of Sheboygan. The people of Sheboygan need to be heard. Here's the other important point, which is a little callous, but once Aurora gets what they want, if they get what they want, which I don't hope they don't get what they want, but if they get what they want, they're just going to be done with all these people. They'll never hear from Aurora again. They'll never call them. They'll never say hi to them. They'll be done with them. And unless they understand that, that all they're doing now is using them to get what they want, and then when they're done, they'll be discarded. Right. And the taxpayers will be left. And hopefully, if they do that, the taxpayers and the voters will discard them too. Yes. Well, the other point to bring up would be the April 7th elections. April 7th election is a school board coming up, and there's five people, I believe, that are running. It's Peter Madden, Mary Beth Martin, and Dennis Schmidler, and Barb Tysinski, and Ryan Berg. Well, Barb Tysinski has a long history of trying to destroy parks, and she's at it again. And Ryan Berg, I don't know much about him, but he also voted in the unanimous vote. So I think what the team has talked about is supporting Peter Madden, Mary Beth Martin, and Dennis Schmidler. And those are the people, I think, it's new blood. Barb, for example, has been there 19 years. 19 years. That's too long. That's too long. We thank her for her service, but it's too long. She needs to move on. Yeah. Well, and it's important that our elected officials know that they can't just do what they want. They are elected officials. That they're serving us, not a war, not the largest private employer in Wisconsin. They serve us. They should be responsible. Well, and Scott Lewandowski is running for an aldermanic seat. Yes, he is. I guess Bill Thiel. And while I have a lot of respect for Bill for having recused himself from the vote, that was the appropriate thing to do. I think we should give... He was in on the planning of the whole thing, and I think we should give Scott Lewandowski a chance. Good. All right. So, community members, what we're asking, if you believe that we shouldn't rezone this part, because that's one of the ways that we're going to stop this now. Now that our elected officials at the school board pass this behind closed doors, before we could stop them and organize and find out what was going on, they passed it. So the way to... Or they sold the property. So the way to stop this right now is to tell your older persons, no, to rezoning the field of dreams. It is a residential property. We want to keep it a park and keep it residential. It is a park according to the city plan. It's not over yet. It's not over yet. And also, join us at the rally. We're having a rally at Aurora... The clinic. The Aurora Clinic on Memorial Drive on Saturday at... 10 a.m. 10 a.m. And to one this Saturday. So join us at the rally. And also come to the... Common Council meeting on April 8th. Call your alderman. And save the field of dreams. Thank you everyone. Thank you for listening. Thanks.