Private management for the La Crosse Center will get some study

The idea of bringing in private management to run the La Crosse Center is something the Center’s current managers want a voice in deciding.

The Center Board has been discussing the idea proposed recently by Mayor Mitch Reynolds to have the newly expanded building run by a private firm — similar to how the Forest Hills Golf Club is managed.

The mayor was not available to explain the plan at the board’s meeting Monday, but Center Board chair Brent Smith said the idea is still in the talking stage.

“(Reynolds) has always said to me, the two or three times I’ve talked about it, this is a possibility, for lack of a better term, investigation,” Smith said during the public meeting Monday. “This is looking at it, as opposed to something that’s a done deal.”

Reasons for moving to private management include the changes made in the $42 million expansion and the planned retirement of long-time Center Director Art Fahey, who says there are clear options to consider.

“There’s a privatization process, there’s moving forward with the people that we’ve got, there’s a national search,” Fahey told the board. “All those, you know, seem to be the one-two-threes on this thing.”

Smith added that there wouldn’t be any ideas for the board to vote on for a few months yet.

Monday, the board re-elected Smith as chair for another year, with attorney Phil Addis named vice chair.