Salina City Commissioners have decided to end a management contract on the Fieldhouse Salina project.

Salina Mayor Jon Blanchard tells KSAL News that a vote on Monday to end a contract with McCown Gordon now opens up the project to a competitive bidding process.

At the meeting,commissioners heard from Bob Miller, CEO of Busboom & Rauh, who spoke as a representative for local contracters. He said that he beleives that fieldhouse can be built for the original $9 million dollar estimate.

The fieldhouse project was initially expected to cost $9 million total. But that total was based on 2013 estimates. At a special meeting on February 16th, Salina City Commissioners approved contributing up to $7 million to the project via bonds. At the same meeting commissioners also approved a design that would cost around $12 million.

Mayor Jon Blanchard and Commissioner Trent Davis both voted against ending the management contract. Commissioners Kaye Crawford, Randall Hardy, and Karl Ryan, and voted in support of ending the contract so the bidding process approach could be utilized.

Fieldhouse Salina is expected to help generate other projects, and investors, and to spur a total revamped downtown Salina. Potential projects include, but are not limited to:

• A high-end, 120-room, five-story hotel on Mulberry between Santa Fe and Fifth streets built by Salina-based Blue Beacon International.
• Two museums, including the “Wings Over Salina Aviation Experience” and an automobile museum.
• A bowling alley and indoor fun center.

Plans also include narrowing Santa Fe from a four-lane street to a three-lane street. Traffic would flow in one lane in each direction, with a center turning lane. The redesign would open up more sidewalk space, thus opening up outdoor seating for downtown businesses.