A very good commentary from Trent Knuckles today. He writes a good column, no matter if i agree with him or not.
Depending on how much the Expo Center will be in the hole when the time comes, our elected officials will sure earn their money on how to finish, or not to finish it, when the time comes.
I truly don't see them chaining the road and shutting it down, but, like he said, that's an option, but not a viable one.
I personally think the city leaders will cash in the million bucks we have in the bank, and then try to skim off some funds from the tourism committee to help pay expenses over and above what they would have already taken. Then, they'll borrow some of the money, and maybe even try to float a bond or something to help pay it off. And, they'll take the majority of our cash cow occupational tax money we're getting from Whitley County and apply it toward the debt. The one thing that could come out of this would be it would force them to put the lawyers to work on getting our money from knox county for that end of town's occupational tax money.
If they try to cut corners with the facility, with the internal things like lighting, sound, etc., and then still try to hire a professional management firm to run and promote it, I see that as being hard to do. The reason I feel that way is because if we try to hire a professional firm, and they come in and see what we "don't" have, they won't take the job, or will demand we upgrade the facility to their requirements.
If we don't finish the building to what we started out with, then, I'm afraid my worse fears would come true, and they'll end up hiring some local, unprofessional, untrained, good ol boy, friend of the town person to run it, and we'll end up with nothing. Maybe a gun or car show, and a big nibroc band, and that's about it. They would justify the hiring of a local that way, being short on funds to finish the building, and just go as they can with it.
And, the governor may come through, and throw some more cash our way, that's always possible.
I hope the last scenario happens above all else, for all our sakes.
