(KNSI) – St. Joseph is holding an open house to get input on the Jacob Wetterling Community Center. The open house is Wednesday from 4-7 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Government Center.
In August, St. Joseph selected HMA Architects to design a community center, and now the city wants to hear from the public. Those who attend the open house will learn more about the future community center and share their input on what amenities they would like to see the community center have.
Work on the Jacob Wetterling Community Center in St. Joseph began in 2015. In 2017, St. Joseph agreed to put $6 million towards the project. In November of 2020, Minnesota gave the city a $4 million grant for the project. The estimated cost to build the center is around $16 million.
Jacob Wetterling was 11 when he was abducted near his St. Joseph home in 1989. In 2016, Danny Heinrich confessed to kidnapping and killing Jacob closing the state’s most high-profile kidnapping case. In a plea agreement, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison on child pornography charges but was not charged in Jacob’s abduction and death.