Why is the Candy Factory different than a City park?
Why is the Candy Factory different than a City park?
In an election cycle neither the Mayor nor City Council would dare cut funding to parks. In another fine column on Saturday August 13th Hayes Hickman writes about the Worlds Fair Site project. From his column we learn that the Candy Factory and Victorian houses cost the City about $ 200,000 per year in operating costs. I thought it would be interesting to compare this cost to other costs in the City’s Budget.
The proposed 05/06 City Budget includes:
Jobs Now campaign $ 400,000
Knoxville Partnership $ 696,840
Knoxville Zoological Park $ 864,210
Recreation (parks included) $ 10,044,100
Ballpark improvements in parks throughout the City $200,000
Lonsdale Park improvements $400,000
Development of a skate park facility (a new project) $450,000
Senior Aides (a new program) $ 456,750
The Total proposed budget for 05/06 is $ 307,783,760. A 7.47 % increase over the adopted budget of 04/05 of $ 286,394,320. This increase is $ 21,389,440.
The $ 200,000 to operate the Candy Factory and Victorian houses is .94 % of the budget increase for 05/06. So one of the most valuable City Assets, which in reality is owned by the taxpayers of Knoxville, has to be sacrificed so the City can balance the budget?
It gets worse, Hayes Hickman writes that, “The sale would, however, relieve the city’s immediate burden of some $200,000 in annual operating costs for the buildings, as well as an estimated $3.5 million to $4 million in backlogged maintenance needs, Lyons said.”
So is Bill Lyons saying the City has been negligent on maintenance of one of the City’s most valued assets? Why have these maintenance needs been backlogged? From the budget excerpts above you can see that money is not the issue. So why do over one hundred groups that use the Candy Factory as a public meeting place have to be kicked to the curb? This is about much more than the Arts Community. The groups that use the Candy Factory as a public meeting place should have the same rights as skateboarders or people that walk their dogs in the park. The question is why is there a double standard?
August 15th, 2005 at 2:11 pm
Actually the Senior Aides program has been going on for at least 6 years. I know a couple of older folk that have worked for then. It’s very warm-fuzzy, but a real boondoggle and a lot of paperwork. Folks will work, quit, and then Parks & Rec(the department to whom they are attached) will hire them again complete with a complete duplication of the process.
August 15th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
As a knee-jerk libertarian, there is no right to have meetings on city property, or right to skateboard/walk-the-dog in a public park.
August 15th, 2005 at 4:28 pm
My guess is that what he meant by it relieving them of the millions in backlogged maintenance is that they will use the money from the sale of the property (which I’m guessing will be 3.5-4 million) for past due maintenance on other things.
Could be wrong, but it’s a pretty common political ploy. Tell the people that you are behind in taking care of things because of a lack of funds so you can get money from wherever.
August 15th, 2005 at 5:09 pm
My guess is that what he meant by it relieving them of the millions in backlogged maintenance is that they will use the money from the sale of the property (which I’m guessing will be 3.5-4 million) for past due maintenance on other things.
Could be wrong, but it’s a pretty common political ploy. Tell the people that you are behind in taking care of things because of a lack of funds so you can get money from wherever.
You are right on the second part. They ignored the maintenance to create the need to sell the building. Someone should be held accountable for that but I am not holding my breath. Was it incompetence, oversight, or something worse?
The City will sell the Candy Factory for 1.6 million dollars. It sounds like a great deal until you learn the City also may give the developer a 15-year TIF so the building cost much less than the 1.6 million. It could knock the cost down to $ 500,000 or even less. TIF’s are a property tax deferment method of financing redevelopment. They are often used with historical buildings.
What is wrong is the Good Ole Boy system that lets the City sell an asset to a pal who will make over 4 million dollars of profit. They think they can do these things because it is complicated and that no one is watching. This is the same pal that took taxpayers for a ride on the Market Square project. Tuesday at 5:00 in the City County building City Council will make the decision.
August 15th, 2005 at 6:25 pm
AGENDA FOR A REGULAR COUNCIL MEETING
AUGUST 16, 2005
7:00 PM
ORDER OF BUSINESS
f. A Resolution approving an agreement with Kinsey Probasco Hays LLC for the purchase and development of the Candy Factory and the Victorian Houses. (Requested by Policy Development)
It is a regular City Council meeting so the correct time is 7:00 PM.
August 15th, 2005 at 7:35 pm
#9, what you are missing is that there were not 3 (as mentioned on the “blab”) but 4 proposals.
Nobody is talking about the Sherrod/McCarty/Holsaple proposal that addressed all the properties including the Amphitheater, kept the current use for the Candy Factory and Victorian Houses, offered $5 million for the CF and the Sunsphere, or to lease the Sunsphere for $380K/year (as compared to the KP proposal for $36K per year) and pay $2.3 million for the CF.
Which is odd in light of the administration’s claim that no other proposal but KP’s addressed adaptive reuse of the Sunsphere, or their claim that the next best offer for the CF was $100K.
It is also odd in light of the recent decision to split the Sunsphere out of the CF and VH contract, after the administration’s claim that the VH could not be split out of the contract because it would invalidate the RFP process.
The bullshit is so deep you need hip waders. No worries, though. It will all be a done deal tomorrow night.
August 15th, 2005 at 8:46 pm
Don’t forget that the Knoxville Musuem of Art building was modelled after the Candy Factory.
Have you ever stood down by where the Court of Flags used to be and stare at the two buildings. It’s well executed architecture. The buildings together are artwork.
It would be a shame to lose that.
August 15th, 2005 at 8:46 pm
Nobody is talking about the Sherrod/McCarty/Holsaple proposal that addressed all the properties including the Amphitheater, kept the current use for the Candy Factory and Victorian Houses, offered $5 million for the CF and the Sunsphere, or to lease the Sunsphere for $380K/year (as compared to the KP proposal for $36K per year) and pay $2.3 million for the CF.
I never saw that proposal. How could the City of Knoxville pass up that deal in favor of the KPA deal?
December 19th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
[…] Several months ago I wrote about the Candy Factory. I asked the question how the Candy Factory was different from a City Park. The City of Knoxville spends over 10 million dollars per year on parks and recreation. The third rail of politics in Knoxville is that a City Park would never be sold to a developer to build condos but isn’t that exactly what is happening with the Candy Factory? […]