Civic Arts Center
There’s a push for a local Civic Arts Center in Blount County. Supposedly, it exists to bring culture to our fair county.
They way the scam works is that our local college will put up some money, as will the County and a few cities. They’ll build it and the college will assume responsibility for it and, of course, get the most benefit from it. Then, so I hear, they’ll use it for symphonies, arts shows and other stuff that won’t be popular or make money. Several local folks support this boondoggle that is in the works. I don’t.
If the county and city I’m in have the extra dough laying around to build this fiasco, then I’m paying too much in taxes and want my money back. Or they could put street lights in some county areas that need them. Or any other useful, meaningful thing (such as county trash pick up and re-paving some of the older roads). This thing will not bring substantial revenue to the city. If you don’t believe me, look at Knoxville’s mostly unused convention centers or go to a Knoxville Symphony Orchestra show. Unlike Blount County, Knoxville is actually on the map.
November 2nd, 2005 at 6:07 pm
[…] A couple of times, I’ve mentioned this proposal for a civic arts center in my hometown. I’ve said it’s a waste, won’t be successful and that it basically is a way for taxpayers to foot the bill for Maryville College. Well, it looks like this soon-to-be-known-as-a-colossal-failure is moving forward: The city of Maryville on Tuesday committed the first share of public funds toward construction of a $55 million civic arts center on the campus of Maryville College. […]
November 10th, 2005 at 10:03 am
[…] In Blount County, the powers that be want to build this fantastic boondoggle known as the Civic Arts Center. The scam was supported last week by the city (my the city) of Maryville who agreed to waste $9M of tax payer money on this fiasco. Now, the city (not my the city) of Alcoa has decided to pony up nearly $4M. All that’s left is convincing Blount County to foot part of the bill of $11M. It looks like that will happen: “Three unanimous votes, the college, Maryville and Alcoa have all been totally unanimous. The (Blount County Commission) budget committee passed it unanimously, even without recommendation, to the full commission for a vote,” said Carolyn Forster of Citizens for a Civic Arts Center. “Now all the (county) commissioners will have the chance to vote on it.” […]
November 15th, 2005 at 12:32 pm
[…] I’ve covered this plenty of times but here’s the latest at The Daily Times: Citizens for and against a proposed civic arts center have one thing in common: they’re busy lobbying their county commissioners this week. […]