Let's build a new sports center in town.

Let's have it include a great new swimming pool, with all those things like slides and rafts and a sloped bottom that makes it seem like you're just walking into a lake or ocean - all those things that turn a swimming pool into an "aquatic center."

Let's have it include a first class ice arena, with two rinks so the hockey players can play while the recreational skaters skate, where you can have hockey tournaments and - with the flip of a switch - indoor soccer games.

Let's have it include a nifty recreation center, a bright and airy place with a couple of gyms and all the latest equipment, a place with glass walls so you could watch the hockey as you work out or glance over at the swimmers as you line up for a free throw.

Let's have it be a five-way partnership: the city, the university, private donors, industry and students.

There's a real need for this. There's a perfect place for it. There's a way to finance it.

The need is clear:
Fifty-seven percent of the people who responded to the latest "resident satisfaction survey" said they want the city to build an aquatic center. The current Ames/ISU Ice Arena "has reached the end of its economic life," a consultant says. And gym use at the Community Center in City Hall is about as jammed as it can get.

The site is perfect:
The Ames/ISU Ice Arena is operated by the City of Ames on land owned by Iowa State University. It is just across the road from Gateway Pool, a small and deteriorating pool that has about 7,500 admissions each summer but that, like the arena itself, is on its last breaths. Between the 42 acres of the city-owned Gateway Park and the Dairy Farm land used by the Ice Arena, there's plenty of space - with a little land juggling by the university - for a nifty new complex. Ames will continue to grow to the southwest, and that fact, plus the fact that students from nearby Iowa State are big users of both the ice arena and Gateway Pool, dictates that the arena and pool stay in that area.

The financing is possible:
A first-rate complex probably would cost $10 million. If that were financed by a bond issue - a 12-year issue at 6 percent - it would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $66 in extra taxes the first year - that's 18 cents a day - a number that would drop to under $30, or 8 cents a day, by the 12th year.

But it needn't be financed just by property taxes. Historically, the Ice Arena has been a partnership among the city, the university and the citizens. Built in 1978, it was financed by private donations, constructed on Iowa State land, and managed by the city's Parks and Recreation Department.

The same partnership could and should continue. The university's Murray Blackwelder this week offered the services of the ISU Foundation to see if millions could be raised for the arena portion of a complex. The city should jump at that offer, for Blackwelder is a master money-raiser. But the university could go a step further: it is in the midst of a $300 million fund-raising drive, and it could promise to allocate to the complex the first $4.5 million raised over the $300 million goal - a goal that is sure to be surpassed.

It's proper that the Foundation help raise money for the arena, since the main users are the 3,550 university students who sign up each year for intramural hockey. And while $4.5 million might sound like a lot of money, put it in perspective: it's less than the university is planning for its new press tower and skyboxes at the football stadium.

That would cut the $100,000-home owner's cost to $33 the first year - about 9 cents a day - and $15, or 4 cents a day, in the 12th year.

But that's not all.

Students could help, too. The Government of the Student Body at Iowa State regularly supports community facilities used by students, from Cy-Ride to social services. Until recently, it was giving about $500,000 to the university's athletic department, but to save some minority sports the student group agreed to kick in another $500,000 a year. But now the athletic department seems to be on firmer financial ground, and if just $100,000 of that extra were reallocated it would cover the interest and principal on another $1 million of that $10 million sports center.

That would knock another $6 to $7 off the home owner's tax bill.

Finally, industry could help. There's no particular reason for the city to operate a recreation center, but there's every reason for one to be at a new sports complex. Why not contract with an experienced operator - from Ames or elsewhere - to run the center. The contract could be drawn so that the lease covers the maintenance and upkeep, assures a reasonable profit for the operator and amortizes another $1 million or so of the cost.

That would put the property tax portion at somewhere around $23 the first year - 6 cents a day - and $10, or 3 cents a day, the last year.

That's just the way we figure it. We're sure Steve Schainker and those smart folks at City Hall could come up with wizardry to cut those costs even more.

But you get the idea. The university could offer land and fund-raising expertise. Private donors could come up with the cost of the arena itself. Students could underwrite another piece. A private operator could absorb some of the costs. And taxpayers could pay the rest - a matter of pennies a day.

It could be done.

It should be done.

Let's do it.