At the bitter end of the August 5th Town Council meeting, Lance Terpenny gave his "Town Manager" report. In it, he mentioned the new Aquatic Center manager had been hired, and that her first job would be to write a business plan and a marketing plan.
You Know What This Means
The Town of Christiansburg spent a bazillion dollars on an “Aquatic Center” without benefit of a viable business and marketing plan?!?
The folks presently serving on Town Council bring experience from current or past professions as bankers, civil engineers, a marketing degree, manufacturing and construction industry managers, and public school administrators. Would any one of them write a multi-million dollar check to fund a start up venture without reviewing a business plan? Did you, dear reader, write that check?
So the new director inherits all the town manager's project files and is tasked, first and foremost, with creating a business plan rather than updating one. This reportedly will include lots of telephone calls and visits in order to develop salary surveys, staffing requirements, rental rates and other stuff that will clearly define costs and revenue potentials.
(Overheard at a Salem Avalanche game last weekend: “Virginia Tech got Christiansburg to build a great new facility for them.” This was part of a chat about the Olympic swim team and where they draw from. Note the T’s are only reporting on a public perception here.)
What If?
After getting citizen input in the last century, kicking the concept around for a few years and then evolving from a simple community pool to a potentially regional sporting venue, furniture may not have been included in the $14MM budget. At least folks attending the Town Council meeting Tuesday night could conclude that, based on the establishment of a “Donations Committee” to solicit funds to buy furniture, equipment and such. With two members absent, the town manager stated when this was discussed several times previously a consensus to take this approach was there, he believed. (Councilman Barber had been on long term record as opposing doing this, yet didn't demur Tuesday night.)
Debt service for the facility is currently reported as being $156K until the year 2027, and it has an estimated $1MM annual operating cost even with scheduled payments from Virginia Tech covering only the price of modifications it requested to bring the facility into ACC compliance. At another point in time, there was a public-private partnership in place for the construction of this facility.
The Donations Committee will be made up by Councilman Ernie Wade, Planning Commission Chairman (and National Bank of Blacksburg manager) Steve Simmons, outgoing council member Steve Huppert, the Mayor and one more open slot for another "player" to be named in the future. It was stated this committee will be chaired by a former executive of FNB now working with Roanoke's HomeTown Bank, Christiansburg branch (NewRiver Bank). Sorry, it was late and the sound is bad and the name got blurred, so only "CEO of NewRiver Bank" clearly audible.
The Mayor said he wanted "the community -- including all Montgomery County residents and businesses -- to have ownership in the facility” and used that to justify establishing this committee to raise a targeted $500,000. Without a vote by council.
If town tax dollars and public debt were used to build the facility, haven't these same citizens already established 'ownership'?
If you don't donate, are you excluded from future 'ownership'?
If council and local business leaders are going door-to-door with hat in hand, won’t the town be in competition with area non-profits whose budgets are shrinking by the quarter?