A news article “Overdue museum debt tops $741,000” states: “There hasn’t been any threat of breaking knee caps. No one has shown up at the door of the Historic Preservation Trust of Lancaster County with brass knuckles.
No one has been there threatening the nonprofit architectural preservation organization to pay up, but the trust remains eight months behind in its debt.
The trust owes the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority $741,255 for costs associated with the construction of the Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith museum. The county meeting center wraps around the museum space, and the initial museum construction was incorporated into the building of the center, which opened last year.”
WATCHDOG: Does it? Note the following NewsLanc account from the Convention Center series:
“ ‘Lancaster Newspapers’ ‘Day of Infamy’: August 11, 2006’ On August 11, [2006] the Intelligencer Journal crossed a red line when it ran a banner headline that purposefully and falsely announced: ‘Center Closes Fund Gap’ The article also extensively quoted its own chairman, Jack Buckwalter, who said: ‘This is a happy day. It looked like this project would fail. Failure was not an option.’
The apparent purpose of the distortions was to win public support and defuse an anticipated outcry to the scheduled awarding of $140 million in construction contracts by the Convention Center Authority on the next business day.
Compounding the journalistic outrage, a point by point refutation submitted in a timely manner by project critics went unreported. Among the claims that the more than $20 million budget gap was bridged were:
- A $7 million savings by having others pay for the parking garage, but a parking garage was not in the construction budget.
- $5.25 million would be saved through ‘value engineering,’ although value engineering had already been performed two times and construction contracts were about to be awarded.
- $3 million would be acquired from the Historic Preservation Trust. However Tim Smedick, Executive Director of the Trust, states that: ‘This was an inadvertent reporting error by the Lancaster Newspapers…We will not be giving money to the convention center project.’ In addition, the actual budget gap remains closer to $30 million because no provision in the budget has been made for contingencies, a standard line item provision ranging from $6 million to $8 million for a $160 million project.”
Publisher Robert Field recalls Tim Smedick explaining that the Historic Trust had problems raising operating costs, let alone taking on a capital campaign. Smedick was horrified at the Intell report.
So is the $741,000 allegedly owned something the Trust voluntarily took on or was it imposed upon it by others trying to paper over the Convention Center funding gap?
Bernard Harris is taking another sophomoric swipe at PAM.
The LCCC and Marriott Hotel project has been miscommunicated to the public from the inception of this ill-begotten white elephant. How many meetings have been scheduled, how many attendees, how many dollars have been generated, how many have been funneled away from the CC and into the Marriott?
Why doesn’t Bernard do some real homework on these issues? Regrettably; Jack is no longer here to stop him, so who is???
Everyone wants to be optimistic, unfortunately the well has run dry. Just this week I heard a phrase that is so true: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A DREAM AND A GOAL? A PLAN!!!!!!!!!
The goal is to pay the debt, where is the PLAN? We tax payers have plenty of money to pick up the debt, what is another $800,000 on top of the millions that we are looking at over the horizon?
Regarding the convention center…..the museum is a joke. The artifacts collected from the cistern of the museum is a bunch of worthless rubbish…broken stoneware lids, broken dishes and glassware….that would be considered trash at any auction and promptly thrown away. What a colossal waste of money.
Who, outside of Lancaster County, gives a hoot about Thaddeus Stevens. In addition, not long ago the Convention Center was looking for more money to install solar panels on the newly constructed roof. I must ask the backers, planners, and promoters of the LCCC…..what were you smoking??????
What authority does this Authority have to be lending money/extending credit to anyone? The LCCCA is within 6 months of insolvency.
Where is the PDCVB is all of this? They will be the first to lose funds when the bank takes, without any public notice or hearings, their 20% of the bed tax when the LCCCA falters. Do they care?
The LCCCA hasn’t officially loaned money or extended credit to the Historic Preservation Trust, which simply doesn’t have the cash to pay the obligations which were forced upon them years ago by public officials who were trying to close an ever-widening funding gap. The LCCCA simply does not have the ability to force the HPT to pay up; the LCCCA is left with so little cash (because of the agreements which were rubber-stamped by previous LCCCA boards) that it cannot afford to pay the lawyers which would be needed to pursue any legal action against the HPT. (Note that LCCCA operational funds are completely separate from convention center operational funds, which are managed by Interstate Hotels and Resorts – NOT by the LCCCA.)
The PDCVB knows that the County Commissioners would increase the “hotel tax” to 7% (the maximum allowed by State law) in order to restore any funding lost when Wachovia/Wells Fargo (via M&T Bank) claims the PDCVB’s portion to pay for convention center operational losses (they can do this because Wachovia/Wells Fargo holds a lien against the “hotel tax”). The County Commissioners can get away with this because they promised to not provide any additional funds to the convention center, but made NO promises about additional funding for the PDCVB – which would be justified in the name of supporting the tourism industry in Lancaster County.
Two things–the Trust stiffed some of its contractors, who then had to lay off employees. At the same time, the Trust was to receive money from the state, but LCCCA interfered and prevented that from happening. Worth looking into.
Bernard Harris is taking another sophomoric swipe at PAM.
The LCCC and Marriott Hotel project has been miscommunicated to the public from the inception of this ill-begotten white elephant. How many meetings have been scheduled, how many attendees, how many dollars have been generated, how many have been funneled away from the CC and into the Marriott?
Why doesn’t Bernard do some real homework on these issues? Regrettably; Jack is no longer here to stop him, so who is???