Council OKs civic center contract

Published 1:08 am Thursday, May 12, 2011

In approving the new Washington Civic Center management contract between the City of Washington and the Washington Tourism Development Authority, Washington’s City Council opted not to increase the city’s annual $50,000 subsidy to operate the Civic Center.

The Washington Civic Center. (WDN Photo/Jonathan Clayborne)

The new contract takes effect July 1.
The proposed management contract called for increasing that annual subsidy to assist in the operation of the Civic Center by $15,000. Under the existing management contract, the city uses its best efforts to provide up to $15,000 a year to address additional maintenance needs at the Civic Center.
The WTDA has operated the Civic Center for the past five years. During that time, the city has provided additional funding for additional maintenance and building-related projects.
“With the $50,000 annual contribution, the Civic Center has operated at a deficit of approximately $10,000 (excluding the above mentioned maintenance projects),” reads a memorandum fro Lynn Lewis, the city’s tourism-development director, to the mayor and council.
At the last council meeting, Lewis said that during the past five years when maintenance needs required addressing, the city “has found a way to make those things happen.”
“However, as we look forward to the future relationship, our request would be that due to pertinent numbers for the past four years … that we would change item No. 3 (in the contract) which actually covers the amount of funds that are allocated by the city on an annual basis, for the period of the contract, would be $65,000 rather than $50,000,” Lewis said.
In responding to her request to increase the annual subsidy by $15,000, an amount equal to the limit of $15,000 a year in additional funds the city would try to provide for additional maintenance needs, Councilman Doug Mercer told Lewis that “you really want to take that $15,000 and spend it wherever you would like to do things and does not, in my mind, guarantee that maintenance is going to be part of that $15,000”
Mercer said he would prefer the city continue with its $50,000 per year allocation to help the WTDA run the Civic Center and address additional maintenance items on an annual basis. He suggested the WTDA submit a list of maintenance-related requests at the beginning of the budget process each year and allow the council to review and address those requests as it cobbles the budget for the next fiscal year.
As a whole, the council indicated it would rather continue with the annual $50,000 subsidy and provide additional funding for additional maintenance or other needs at the Civic Center on a case-by-case basis.
A list of proposed projects to upgrade the Civic Center carries an estimated overall cost of $80,000. The projects include the following:
• Replacement of decking boards and reconfiguration to make it easier for handicapped people to access the Civic Center ($15,000).
• Replace awnings that are dry-rotting and moldy ($2,500).
• Purchase tables and chairs (which can be rented to people who rent the Civic Center) ($22,000).
• Install new, energy-efficient lighting ($5,000).
• Upgrade the WiFi system ($7,000)
• Install new, fire-retardant draperies to replace 30-year-old draperies ($5,000).
• Major overhaul of restrooms, including making them easier for handicapped people to access ($20,000).
• Replace kitchen flooring ($3,500).
Meanwhile, the WTDA continues to aggressively market the Civic Center as a place for business-related and other activities in an effort to decrease or eliminate the deficit it encounters each fiscal year in operating the Civic Center.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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