Me, I personally think we saved the county from itself.
From the Times-News:
Calling it a deal too good to pass up, Henderson County commissioners agreed Wednesday to buy the former Hendersonville Christian School on South Grove Street for $910,000.
The 9.45-acre property will become the county’s new athletics and activity center.
The board also approved an allocation of $1.01 million in startup costs needed to get the property ready for public use, including $505,000 to install artificial turf on the former school’s grass athletic field, $130,000 to light it for night games and another $130,000 to install 65 parking spaces.
In addition, the board will spend $284,000 on repairs and renovations at Jackson Park to bring it up to “tournament standards” capable of hosting baseball and softball teams. Those improvements include new batting cages, wireless scoreboards, new fencing, new or repaired dugouts, extra parking and remodeled restrooms.
That means commissioners have committed $2.11 million toward the new recreation center and Jackson Park, minus $100,000 the county already budgeted for recreation this fiscal year. For now, the money will come from the county’s estimated $26.8 million fund balance, though board members passed a resolution allowing them an 18-month window to finance some or all of it....
County Manager Steve Wyatt outlined ways in which the facility’s costs could be offset through revenues. The county can move karate, dance, scrapbooking and other classes out of Stoney Mountain Community Center, along with one employee, saving $83,000 in necessary upgrades there. And Wyatt said the county has been contacted by numerous parties already interested in renting space at the former school site.
Blue Ridge Community College has expressed interest, he said, in using the property’s newly renovated 15,700-square-foot gym for the physical fitness parts of their basic law enforcement, college transfer and emergency medical science classes. The college now uses the Justice Academy in Edneyville, but the new athletic center is only 2.3 miles away from BRCC.
Wyatt said the Christian school’s gym could serve programming needs ranging from adult and church league basketball to volleyball and indoor soccer. During a public hearing, 10 citizens representing an array of youth and adult sports – from Little League to soccer to tennis – spoke in favor of the school purchase and Jackson Park upgrades....
Read it all. Some ways I think this is a potential win for the county (and a much better deal than the Highland Lake Golf Course):
- Process seems to be much more transparent than the golf course fiasco
- Cost of the property is less ($910,000 for the school versus $1.15 million for the golf course)
- Property is already configured for athletics (even though the county will need to put money into the infrastructure, there is no need to remove a golf course--think how much that would have cost)
- More facilities are already there (the gym can serve multiple purposes)
- Surrounding area already used to a school there, with traffic, etc. (I haven't driven by the school, so I don't know how close residential areas are to it, but I'm assuming since the process was more open, if there was opposition, they would have had a chance to voice their concerns)
- Artificial turf will be used (and Dennis Justice will be happy!)
- Night lights can be used (and I'm sure we all remember that the county said of the Flat Rock location that there were no immediate plans to put in lights. . .)
- Possibility to tie this in with Jackson Park and create a county recreation area
So, what do you think?
Actually, no I'm not. The is a facility with five basketball courts (or seven volleyball courts) that could be rented out at the Xcel Sportsplex for far less money. And the money spent here is money that will not put artificial turf where it is needed most, at our four high schools. In other words, there is NO need for this project other than another bailout for a political legacy project.
ReplyDelete