 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
North Belmont reunion
The North Belmont reunion is Oct. 11. The event will be held at North Belmont Elementary School, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. There will be hot dogs, chips and drinks available.
|
|
 |
|
 |
Eyeing center's troubles
By THOMAS LARK
- Thu, Apr 17, 2008
The United States National Whitewater Center’s financial troubles are real but only temporary. That’s the take on the situation offered Thursday by Gaston County Manager Jan Winters.
To help cover its shortfalls during the first seven years of operation, Mount Holly offered to pay the two-year-old center a total of $1 million—as did Gaston County, Winters explained—distributed in annual increments. The cities of Belmont and Gastonia each made the same arrangement, albeit for half that amount.
Winters said he thinks the center’s losses are easy to understand in light of unforeseen construction cost increases totaling millions of dollars.
“It is understandable,” he said, “because, one, they had planned for $28 million. But it ended up being $38 million.”
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Winters, the price of cement and other construction materials skyrocketed, thus partly explaining an increase.
“Second, there was ambivalence about legal access to the center,” he added.
Winters said residents on Hawlfield Road blocked access to the center, causing it to lose a critical amount of time in its opening season by the time the situation was finally resolved.
And in 2007, he added, the center couldn’t pay the debt services on its construction loans.
“They had a real shortfall in debt services,” said Winters, describing those rates as “sky-high.”
Bank of America has the major loan on the Whitewater Center, said Winters.
“The bank forced the center to bring in a management consultant who specializes in turnarounds,” he said. “His job is to assess the ability of Whitewater’s management team. If they’re not able to turn this thing around, the bank will get rid of (Whitewater Executive Director) Jeff Wise and company and bring in a new group.
“And you can’t cut operating expenses to do this,” Winters added of the center’s solvency. “You can’t cut your way out of this. They’re not operating at full capacity. You need the same amount of water, whether you’re running two rafts or 40. What they need is more paying customers.”
Winters said that he’s glad the center is there.
“My daughter and her husband recently spent about $35 to go rafting,” he said, “and they told me what a great place it was.”
Once they found the center, that is.
“They live in Charlotte,” said Winters, “and even they didn’t know how to get there. I think it’s one of the best-kept secrets in the Charlotte region. But there are too many people, even in Charlotte, who’ve never heard of it.”
However, he said, the center is spending more money on marketing.
“But there are no signs on I-85 announcing it,” said Winters, explaining a snag with the North Carolina Department of Transportation. “Jeff wants to put them there, but the DOT won’t let him do it.”
As one would expect, Monday-Friday, the center is not that busy.
“But it’s completely full on weekends,” Winters said. “In July of last year, they had about 100,000 visitors. But only 20 percent of them went in the water.”
The $5 parking fees recently added should help.
“And when that debt service is paid off after seven years, they’ll be even more profitable,” said Winters.
|
|
|
