In a letter to City Council President Connie Robinson regarding the impending refusal of the Council to approve the $37.5 Million bond issue to provide an incentive to HCW of Branson, MO to build a convention hotel adjacent to the Centre, Commission Marsha Abell explicitly states that “no company public or private can continue to operate a facility at losses the size of the ones we have been experiencing at the Centre”.
Abell also commented on how the County is considering shuttering the Old Courthouse and The Coliseum due to operating losses and advised Robinson that the Centre may be mothballed without a convention hotel that is asserted to be able to brink the Centre’s operation into the black. She also expresses her displeasure with the City’s previous actions of demolishing the Executive Inn and the walkway in violation of a legally binding agreement between the City and County to keep the Executive Inn open.
Link to Abell’s Letter to President Robinson
Unbelievable. This not so veiled threat is quite the tantrum on Abell’s part. I think I just lost the little respect I had for her. Are we in Romper Room?
I agree. What a shady attempt to sway votes. Shameful and crooked.
Another reckless comment by one of our Village Idiots. Get rid of her and lets get the county moving forward. We need people in these elected positions that will work together instead of making outlandish threats.
I don’t see it as shady. It is the facts. I am certainly no fan of Commissioner Abell, but it is in the counties best interest to either push for a hotel, or look to sell the Centre…not just board it up. It is losing money. Unfortunately the hotel proposal that was put forth was not a good one, giving away WAY too much taxpayer dollars for far less in return. Now a deal involving selling the Centre to a private company looking to build a hotel/convention area, sounds like a great idea. The county should not be in the convention or any other business. That is not what government is set up to do.
Ohhhhhhhhh…… MY……. GOD! Wow just wow. Can we recall commissioners???
Calling this shameful is letting her off lightly.
Tear it Down–save $800,000yr.
Looks like a good spot for a high dollar parking lot for “The John”.
I disagree with tearing it down. Destruction is not a pathway to prosperity. The Roberts fiasco should teach us that.
I don’t believe anyone would be interested in going to Old Downtown,–even if the Ark of the Covenant were enshrined there.
What is this fixation on a few square blocks of real estate known as Old Downtown, that leaves the rest of this City and our infrastructure diminishing year after year?
Other than being a money pit, it means NOTHING to everyday life and hasn’t for YEARS. I concur with a lot of your positions Brad, but when it comes to that Albatross, Old Downtown,– it’s dead, it’s going to stay dead, and it’s way past time to bury the Dead Horse of yesteryear, and the archaic mentality that sees Old Downtown as the “Center of the Universe”.
I think you misunderstood me. I’m all for getting surplus or non-performing properties off the government books, not for spending more good money tearing them down, i.e. Roberts. Such buildings should ideally be auctioned off or gifted under beneficial contracts. Why let government, who have proven to be poor managers, continue to run them in the ground and cost us money in the process? Likewise, why tear them down when they may be worth far more to the free market as is?
I was just on a tirade about Old Downtown.
I agree with your reasoning, it speaks of the common Sense you seem to always carry with you. Unfortunately common sense is in woefully short supply in the political pool Evansville has turned to for leadership year after year, currently exampled by, Winnecke, Abell, Mosby, Weaver, Parke,–and always abetted by the self-serving creeps of the ERBC.
She’s right about the City jerking the County around on the walkways etc. But this is just wrong on so many levels. Holding the CENTRE hostage as blackmail for a Hotel Vote????
Why didn’t she and Winneke do something about it at the time?
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Evansville politics is such a snake pit, hissing and striking out in any and every direction.
Are there any adults left in town?
I actually think Abell has a point here. The Centre is a liability, which is why I’m increasingly in support of including the Centre in a hotel deal along with the gift of the land opposite, but this would need to come with a ZERO SUBSIDY.
Agreed to, … and I second the motion! …
WOW, I’m glad you are not negotiating for me. Talk about giving away the farm.
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I know of no farms that make losses in the millions every year. Your knee jerk reaction is preventing you from seeing reason.
I could get behind that
Why is she just now pointing this out? Has this been brought to light before and I missed it? Somethings smells and it’s not just the sewers. This is NOT how our local goverment should be ran!
Why do we need the apartments?? build the hotel and add the apartments later if there is interest. We should not be in the rental business or selling apartments.
I do not think the public has ever gotten a straight answer on why the apartments were added, or just who added this to the project, or who the group of investors in the apartments are. When I first heard about this part of the project the hair stood up o the back of my neck. It certainly needed more investigation.
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Convert the Centre into a hotel for the Ford Center. Problem solved.
Marsha Abell is just a fool. “Tired looking downtown”–after injecting a $ 260 Million obligation (Arena) which just opened in November 2011 ???? How much economic benefit has the Arena thrown off thus far: One (1) Bar !
The Centre has never made a profit; $ 8,000,000 + in operating deficit since 2003 and is subsidized by the County. Go ahead Marsha, tear it down and save the County $ 800,000 a year ! At a time when the County is scrambling to find $ 2 Million in budget cuts, this would be a nice down payment.
Marsha, if this is your idea to try to resurrect the Hotel deal, suggest you step down immediately !
Marsha?
Absolutely love the way you cook your goose!
Your temper tantrum threats are so childish and passé. Bye, bye , next election!
And where would all of this be taking place if The Centre was demolished?:
http://www.visitevansville.com/search/node/The%20Centre
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Just received an email sent by Friend to all of the council members. According to the email, the financial statements issued concerning the Centre over the years, fail to actually report the revenues of the Centre to the tone of 4.1 million. Page 3 of the July 2013 indicates County subsidy, but, in fact, it is the innkeepers tax of 25% which, apparently, by statute, is directly associated to the Centre. Marsha, tell us it is not true that you have been misleading the public in the actual results of operations. Would this be a ploy to dupe the public in believing if we don’t build this very expensive, over subsidized playhouse, the centre will have to be board up. I have a suggestion, give the Centre to HCW in lieu of cash, and let them turn the profits, since the playhouse, according to you and others will be the savior of the Centre. I’m sure if they owned the Centre, those massive meeting rooms and ballroom would remain to compete with something they owned, in lieu of cash subsidy.
Shame on those who want to sell the coliseum and old courthouse!
From the C&P:”Earlier this year, the County Council seriously discussed boarding up the Old Courthouse and the Coliseum because both buildings are secure but not in use,†Abell wrote to Robinson, D-4th Ward. ”
First of all, how does building a hotel change that conversation. And secondly isn’t the old courthouse being renovated?
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/mar/12/cp/
I’m sure the Evansville Bar Association is going to love that they stuck $250,000 in the facility in 2011 only to have it close over some stupid hotel spat.
And don’t give me that the Coliseum isn’t being used either. The veterans have all kinds of events there. I’ve been there for bingo and political receptions many times these past few years. Didn’t Commissioner Melcher himself raise funds for a flag pole outside of it?
https://city-countyobserver.com/2011/05/27/a-memorial-day-veterans-message-by-steven-melcher/
This whole situation is one big pile of bull and I find it to be flat out disgusting that the coliseum and courthouse are being drug into it. Hank Roberts had to save the coliseum in the 50s, the Conrad Baker Foundation had to save both and the jail in 65, and Rick Borries had to fight Richard Mourdock to keep them in public hands (90s I believe). I hope this isn’t the generation that gives it all away!
Who gives a frog’s fat ass what Marsha (un-)Abell says?? She’s a blow-hard idiot with old-school politics. Her days of making a living in politics has caught up with her. She’ll soon be a faded memory (thankfully).
What will happen to Russ Lloyd, Jr. wife and Marsha Abel step son If the voters retire her from politics? I guess they will lose their big paying political patronage jobs with the County Conservation office.
Marsha Abell’s letter is so typical of what passes for leadership nowadays in this community. It does point out though the handicap that Evansville has had to deal with for generations.
Many of the people still in local government remember the fight to get ISUE located here and to gain independence for USI.
It is both a shame and a fact of life that Evansville has had to settle for the crumbs from the legislature’s table, while Indianapolis and her surrounding area was living large.
So when Marsha asks: Why would IU want to locate a Medical Center in Evansville?, the answer is many faceted and it goes back a long way and takes in many slights over those years.
I think the most important reason for IU to locate a facility here is the area’s economic need. There is no need to go into a dissertation here, we are all painfully aware of the circumstances.
As we learned with ISUE, the local political delegation has to suit up and get into the fight and get their hands dirty to emerge from the scrap in Indianapolis with something worthwhile. The word “deserving” does not seem to be in the legislature’s lexicon.
The bipartisan plans to make this happen need to start NOW. Those in a position to help need to step up NOW. This is one of those defining opportunities that we can not afford to bungle.
Any “master plan” for the area should have this goal at the top of the list.
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