Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Capital Projects

Yesterday at City Council the decision to delay a municipal amphitheater was reversed and the project (design phase) will proceed. There is a maximum $1.2 million price tag for this portion, and hopefully we'll learn well before spending that amount of money whether an amphitheater has any feasibility as a capital construction expenditure in the future.

While I did not support moving forward with this capital expenditure at this time, the decision has been made and a majority of council (now) wants to proceed. I believed and still do that there are other capital needs in the city that currently outweigh a wonderful, though not necessary, amphitheater project. We have major storm water, road, bridge and curb/gutter/sidewalk needs that must be addressed soon for the future prosperity of Roanoke. We also have a lot of residents struggling and pinching pennies every day and felt the city should lead by example and exercise fiscal restraint.

Having said all this, a majority of council has spoken, and though there were extremely aggressive lobbying efforts undertaken by the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and DRI (which is certainly well within their rights to do), a majority makes the decisions for the policy matters that affect Roanoke and its residents. At this point, we should all hope for the very best outcome as it relates to the amphitheater and that any further information we receive from the management group will help us to best determine how to proceed in terms of the actual construction of an amphitheater.

In short, council never gets boring... and yesterday was a perfect example of just that! Now it's time to move forward and get on with the important work that lies ahead.

2 comments:

Nia said...

Court, I know its totally off topic, but can you tell the superintendent that paving city streets during the day in 90 degree weather is dumb. Where else do you know that paves in the day? Only roanoke, why? I guess they dont want to pay these guys shift diff or what, but you cant pave jefferson st at 12 pm or 3 pm or 4:56 when people have to walk across hot tar.

stephen said...

you are totally right i know a lot about paving. In small towns its ok to pave during the day but they typically do it a night cause it saves time and money.Temperature of the road has nothing to do with paving so it absolutely should be done at night.was bored thought i would comment your post take care.