Show me the money
…Community Center financing sparks Budget and Finance Committee discussion
By Joe Reynolds

Concerned about cash flow and possible depletion of reserves caused by construction of the new Community Center, some members of the OPA Budget and Finance Committee are looking for answers.

“One piece of old business, the Dan Stachurski update,” committee member Cliff Andersen said during the committee meeting last Wednesday. “I don’t have anything I’ve heard about land sales.”

 “He’s (Stachurski) putting together a package to sell the commercial property,” Board liaison Reid Sterrett replied.

 “When we had our November meeting, one particular board member said we should attend board meetings to learn what is going on,” Andersen countered. “Obviously that is not necessarily true.” Andersen described one board meeting as a “hodgepodge of presentations” where “Dan would punt to the attorney and the attorney would punt back. I walked away thinking I didn’t learn a thing, other than there’s a lot of options. If we’re still kicking it around, we’re not going to build that Community Center as quick as we think.”

Andersen noted the recent talk about increased construction costs and said, “All the more reason we should know when we can anticipate the flow of funds from land sales coming in, where we don’t wipe out our reserves.”

“Dan’s still formulating the packages that will go out,” Sterrett repeated. “Yes, we’ve awarded contracts and we will start spending money. So these questions Cliff raises are legitimate. We just don’t have an answer for them right this second. The thing about dipping into reserves before the properties are sold has always been discussed but it’s never a first option. Never has been. Could it come to that? Yes, but let’s hope it doesn’t.”

OPA Comptroller Art Carmine interjected that the recreation facilities reserve was  about $500,000 and the money could be used because “everybody counted on part of that reserve was going to be used for the building anyway.”

When asked the day after the committee meeting to comment about use of reserve funds for the new Community Center, Director Mark Venit said, “That’s news to me. I never heard at any time or any place we were going to touch the reserves to build the Community Center or for cash flow while waiting for the money to come in as the lots were sold. My understanding is those reserves might be used for repairing the existing Community Hall, if we decide to keep it.”