by Ryan Shell on December 9, 2009
I have decided not to update this site on a regular basis; instead I will be providing political information relevant to Greensboro at GreensborPolitics.com. I also update my personal site, RyanShell.com, and invite you to check it out.
Should I decide to run for office again, I will once again start updating this site on a regular basis. In no way have my efforts to positively impact Greensboro stopped, but I will simply highlight my community involvement on the two previously mentioned sites.
- Ryan Shell
by Ryan Shell on November 30, 2009
Now that it appears the current council might try to push the proposed regional swimming pool (slated to be built on the coliseum complex) through before they leave office, I thought I should make my concerns about the issue known.
My first hesitation with this project came when the $12 million bond was bundled in with several other Parks & Recreation items on the ballot. This, in my opinion, was a strategic tactic by those in favor of the pool. The bond was previously a stand alone item, and if memory serves me correctly the bond failed twice.
My second hesitation is that the pool now has a price tag of just over $18 million dollars. That means we are $6 million short – not pocket change by any stretch of the imagination.
One suggestion to close the gap is to borrow against future hotel tax revenues; another is to use the original figure of $12 million to build a community pool.
The idea of borrowing against future hotel tax revenues is a way to ease the impact to Joe Taxpayer, but I instantly think to myself, “could this money be put to better use elsewhere?”
Here’s an example. I travel down a portion of High Point Road / Lee St everyday and a large majority of the time I opt to hop on Freeman Mill because the driving quality on High Point Road is so bad.
To be clear, I choose to bypass tons of businesses because the road conditions are so bad. Could the borrowed money not go towards improving road conditions? I’m sure we could think up lots of other uses for the money as well.
I do not support building a $12 million community pool on the coliseum complex – mainly because it would not be a revenue generator and there seem to be greater needs at this time.
If we are going to build anything it needs to be the competition ready pool, but if that can’t be done we need to put the breaks on the project, or continue working on the public/private partnership option. To my understanding there hasn’t been much luck with this option so far, but I’d like to know exactly what efforts have been made and who the pitch person is.
I think a revenue generating regional style pool would be a good idea so long as the funding is in place, but that simply doesn’t seem to be the case.
