 The Sanford Center is known to be the home of many community events, but one of those events will no longer be on the event center schedule. Our Josh Peterson shares with us how the Beltrami County Relay for Life is looking for a new site for its annual event. The Sanford Center, Bemidji's crown jewel for drawing large events to the city of Bemidji. However, for some organizations, it is no longer feasible to host their event at the building that was built for the community's use. Relay for Life has held their event at the Sanford Center since it opened back in 2010. Now due to financial reasons, the Relay team is left looking for a new home. With the Sanford Center changing their costs, we cannot fiscally afford to continue to be at the Sanford Center. For a nonprofit group which focuses on raising money to fight cancer and help with research, the increased expenses for the new three-year contract with the Sanford Center was simply too much. The nonprofit, we need to watch our money carefully and we want to be as careful with donor dollars as we can, and so we don't want to spend too much on a venue just for a day to hold this event. In a phone call held with Sanford Center Executive Director Jeff Casso, he said he was unaware that the Relay for Life event was not returning to the Sanford Center and declined an on-camera interview. Casso did say with any indoor event space, there's going to be costs associated with putting on an event. For the Relay for Life event lead, she personally feels that the community event center no longer works for the community. I won't say they were bad, but it's just not as well-oriented to the community now as it used to be. Now that Relay for Life will not be held here at the Sanford Center, they're looking to the community for help in trying to find a new home for the county-wide event. In Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. The Bemidji City Council will hear a report from the Sanford Center Task Force at its next meeting. As for the Beltrami County Relay for Life, if you have any ideas and would like to help, you can call the number on the screen. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.