Centralia leaders discuss governance, parking and turf funding for Borst Park sports complex

City of Centralia and Centralia School District leaders, along with the Lewis County Public Facilities District (PFD) and operators of the Northwest Sports Hub LLC, presented an update March 4 on the Borst Park sports complex and outlined options to revise the governance agreement, address mounting parking congestion and complete recent turf work.

The presentation said the complex is a public-private partnership: the PFD owns the event center building, the city owns some underlying land and provided bonding for the Tiger Stadium turf, and the Northwest Sports Hub LLC operates the building under lease. Amy Buckler, deputy city manager and parks director for the City of Centralia, said the governance agreement (originally signed in 2010 and updated in 2012) “really needs to be updated” because it was negotiated before the annex and expansion were built.

The PFD chair, Ron, told the joint meeting the district was created after the 2007 floods and that its revenue comes from “point 033% of the state's portion of sales tax collected in West County.” He said the PFD has funded roughly $10 million toward the event center and related infrastructure and that the Northwest Sports Hub has invested $1,200,000 in building improvements. Ron said the PFD’s monthly receipts have grown from around $35,000 per month initially to roughly $60,000 on average today, but most of that revenue currently services bond payments tied to the original roughly $8,000,000…