I was out of town for a bit and finally got around to reading the Dispatch article on the recent City council candidate forum. I’ll leave my other thoughts for another time but I cannot BELIEVE the topic of a civic center was even on the table.
After the Hostess House bungling, the Business Pork money wasting, the Old City council remodel disaster, and all the empty buildings here in town, anyone who even SUGGESTS that Lampasas needs a civic center is a complete and utter moron who is unfit for office.
Let me direct you to some research I did almost SIX YEARS ago on the topic. I found a city similar to ours (6,300 people) who had made the disastrous decision to build a civic center back in the 1980s.
Crockett, Texas Has a Civic Center! Probably Wish They Didn’t
Six years ago, the budget numbers were revenues of $15,000 and expenses of $101,000 –for an operating loss of $86,000 dollars per year.
I just went and checked the LATEST budget numbers (pages 10 and 32) and NOW, the cost to run the civic center is $172,650! The are budgeting revenue from rental (page 10 under C/C rental fees) of $41,668.
So NOW they are losing about $132,000. Sounds like a fantastic idea.
That’s not even considering the astronomical cost to build the thing in the first place. We are talking probably $10 or $12 million by now. Then by the time the city got done fucking it all up, it would be more like $20 million with an AC unit that breaks down after 4.5 years.
Look at the Hostess House! They managed to blow over $2 million for a building that was ALREADY THERE!
No, no, no. Forget about any civic centers. Forever. Bury that turd and stop bringing it up.