The newly constituted Asheville City Council got off to an interesting start on Tuesday night. In the first meeting for Asheville City Council members Gordon Smith, Cecil Bothwell and Esther Manheimer, the council voted to enter into a contract to build a new recreation center to replace the aging Reid Center near downtown Asheville.
With Mayor Terry Bellamy absent and Manheimer recusing herself from the vote, our new council voted 4-1 to enter into a $1.9 million contract to build a new recreation center, just as council faces a $5 million budgetdeficit.
Councilman Bill Russell voted against the motion.
I watched the meeting, but heard little by way of justification for such action. It’s true that plans have been on the books for years to replace the Reid Center. It’s true that children in the MLK Boulevard neighborhood need a place to play and congregate. And it’s true that some $700,000 in private funding might go away if the project doesn’t move forward.
But can Asheville really afford to move ahead with such a big-ticket spending item in a down economy? How can council members justify such an action, when they’re already preparing to talk about cutting the health benefits of city employees, and when there’s a very real possibility of city employee furloughs and/or lay-offs.
Asheville, what do you think about our new Asheville City Council’s spending priorities in light of Tuesday’s action?
13 Comments
Isn’t there a recall process for city council members? I think there are enough people out there fed up with the out of control spending and the lackadaisical attitude towards spending taxpayer dollars.
This is not the budget year for this giveaway of tax money. If the city lays off staff and raises property taxes and water rates to make up this multimillion dollar shortfall, this voter will hold these council members accountable. It’s easy to make yourself feel good up there, but how about being someone with no job and no health care and seeing you waste money on a damn parks and rec project? That’s the main dept. that needs to be cut, for god’s sake. I’m ashamed of the ones who thought this was the right move at this horrible budget time.
At this time 5 million already in the hole, this is a waste of tax money that Asheville does not have, so now right out of the gate the current council is -7 million dollars and there will be more even wasteful spending of Greenways, endowments to the wretched river arts that NEVER contribute anything back to Asheville And the paint the buses initiative.
its still waste and an insult to the Asheville tax payer. The way this town wastes cash it would be almost as efficient for them to take all that money and just burn it in front of city hall. 2 years time the new center will be run down and dissrepair, not to mention that its not going to create any sustainable long term jobs.
Way to go city council, waste our money, while your at it comission another worthless rust art project for the Homeless urination project
Jason,
Good questions. As I understand it, Phase I of the project will build the new LEED building (the city’s first new LEED construction under our new sustainability mandates) while keeping the dilapidated gym open. Phase II of the project will replace the old gym while the area children utilize the Phase I building.
Renovating the old gym was going to cost a boatload of money, making new construction a more attractive option. I’ve got an email in to the City Manager asking for that exact figure.
i certainly don’t think it’s a waste of money to improve the Reid Center, but I question the timing, as well as the plan.
the plan, as i understand it, to start building a new building while keeping the Reid Center up and running, because the new building won’t initially include a basketball court, which is a key feature of the Reid Center.
the plan calls into question the whole plan. someone explain to me again why we don’t just tear down the Reid Center and rebuild on the same site. or put enough money into renovations to bring it up to speed, rather than building new.
Waste that money, its ok City council its not like its your money its the tax payers so that helps you sleep well at night. Asheville did get what it voted for more out of control spending. Thanks for spending the 2 million we didnt have . . . ..
can asheville NOT afford to serve as many kids as are served by that project? I thought Councilman Russell’s comments were borderline racist, and elitist. To compare the community center where he lives with the Reid Center is silly.
Asheville’s getting what they voted for. Gordon Smith’s response to this post is what I would expect to here from a used car salesman trying to get you to buy a car, "It’s OK, the payments are only $110,000 a year, forget the total price and you’ll look so good in that car, it does matter that you can’t pay they bills you already have!" Give me a break! These are the same people that help bring you $6 million in missing money at the Asheville Airport only they have new faces.
Gordon, thanks for your notes. I missed the portion on sidewalks.
These city council members (except Russell) are out of their minds. They are wired to spend, spend, spend. It is the liberal mindset. Budgets and deficits be damned!
Oh – I also wanted to mention that, due to stimulus funding for energy efficiency retrofits in our public housing, we’re looking at guaranteed energy savings of $757,000 per year! More on that at ScruHoo tomorrow morning.
Thanks for posting this, Jason. It was a difficult vote. Going into a tough budget year, we’re going to have to be very careful. What put this project into the yes column for me was (1) the fact that the cost of the project will be $110,000 per year in debt service rather than having to come up with a lump sum next year; (2) the number of kids (300-350 per day with a pool of 3,000+ living nearby) served in a tough neighborhood; (3) the fact that this project has been in motion for years; (4) the desperate state of the existing facility.
On another note, did you follow the changes to the sidewalk ordinance? Good stuff.
so we are now $7million in the hole…