MARSHALL — Marshall’s municipal band shell needs help, and the city is seeking state Legacy funding to make critical updates.

During Tuesday’s Marshall City Council meeting, Mayor Bob Byrnes said he and Parks and Recreation Superintendent Preston Stensrud recently testified about the band shell project before state legislators. The city is asking for $795,000 grant from the state arts and cultural heritage fund to redevelop the band shell.

A bill to appropriate the funding in fiscal year 2026 was introduced in the Minnesota Senate by Sen. Gary Dahms, Byrnes said.

“The first hearing happened on the Senate side this past Thursday,” Byrnes said. “It has yet to be introduced on the House side, mainly because they’ve only been in session officially for two-and-a-half days so far, and there’s a large number of bills on the docket to be introduced.”

Materials that the city presented to Minnesota state senators said the band shell is deteriorating after 70 years of exposure to Minnesota weather. A 2021 engineering report said wood supports in the band shell’s foundation and concrete facade were cracking, making them structurally unsound.

Plans to redevelop the band shell would also add an ADA-accessible way to access the stage, city presentation materials said.

The total cost estimate for the project was $1.1 million, and Marshall was seeking $795,000 in state Legacy funds. The city has received a $100,000 donation toward the project, and they also plan to seek out further donations and use city funding to complete it.

One part of the city’s presentation materials sparked some comments from council members. Marshall director of administrative services E.J. Moberg estimated that the state Legacy Amendment sales tax collected more than $13.8 million from sales in the city of Marshall between April 2013 and October 2024. During that same time period, Marshall was awarded a combined total of $39,498 through the state’s arts and cultural heritage fund.

“That was in three different years: 2012, 2016 and 2022,” Byrnes said. The arts and cultural heritage funding helped pay for arts projects like the murals on Marshall’s Main Street, the Mrs. Whitney statue, and the Marshall ‘M’ sculpture created for the city’s 150th anniversary.

“So we’ve given $13.8 million and we’ve collected $40,000?” said council member James Lozinski.

“That’s correct, but that’s also understating what we’ve given,” Moberg said. The state started collecting the Legacy sales tax in 2009, and his estimate only went back to 2013, when Marshall began collecting a local sales tax.

“So the city of Marshall’s been very good to the Legacy fund,” Lozinski said.

“That was the point, with the help of Sen. Dahms, that we were making,” Byrnes said.