93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Columbia will ask voters to renew the parks and recreation sales tax in 2021.
Parks and recreation director Mike Griggs says a big chunk of that money will go to taking care of what the city already has. But expect a commitment to new developments too, like the planned sports complex at the Boone County Fairgrounds.
“A lot of that new development will also include a lot of what I call ‘revenue-generating facilities,'” Griggs said on CEO Roundtable. “I’d love to build a pool, but boy they just lose money. An ice rink, same thing.”
Griggs says tournament organizers like the grass fields in town, but they don’t like the risks. He’s planning on synthetic surfaces for the ball fields at the fairgrounds.
“You can really make some hay with some of these bigger tournaments.”
Boone County announced in December 2019 it was turning over control of the fairgrounds to the city of Columbia.
I’ve lived in Columbia since 1968 and I’ve watched this Same Song & Dance how they always promised let’s put a ice skating rink in it’s no different than what Joe Biden does make a lot of promises to a lot of different groups only to jerk the rug out from under those promises after you get what you want city of Columbia is notorious for this make a lot of promises to the taxpayers and money earmarked for one item go somewhere else! I am so done with the taxes here in Columbia!
FAIRGROUNDS FAIL: Nineteen years and many plans later, another Boone bailout?
COLUMBIA, Mo 1/15/18 (Feature) —
If a single project epitomizes the word “boondoggle,” it’s the
Boone County Fairgrounds
, renamed the Central Missouri Events Center then closed, after sixteen years, in 2015.
The Boone County Commission — like the City of Columbia, never shy about asking for a tax increase — asked voters for a bailout on a 2014 ballot Fairgrounds boosters sold as a “parks tax.”
But the tax had so little to do with parks, the County’s own park board declined to endorse it. It failed at the ballot, too.
County’s own park board declined to endorse it
Now, Commissioners want the city of Columbia to “step up,” using city parks tax dollars to renovate the failed event venue. Citizens are greeting that plan, like the others, with skepticism and resistance.
like the others, with skepticism and resistance
Stamper of approval
For reasons few people understand to this day, then-Presiding Commissioner Don “Donnie” Stamper led the charge to buy the 214-acre Fairgrounds in 1999.
Don “Donnie” Stamper led the charge
Stamper, once a populist standard bearer of local Democrats, lost his 3-term County Commission seat to Republican Keith Schnarre, in a campaign battle that hinged on voter dislike for the Fairgrounds purchase.
Part of the mystery is why such a savvy politician would throw away a promising career on such an obvious boondoggle. Enter developers again. Stamper left politics to become director of the Central Missouri Development Council, a lobby for the local development industry.
Central Missouri Development Council
County government paid a failing non-profit — the Boone County Agricultural and Mechanical Society — $2.6 million for 134 acres of the Fairgrounds site.
Developer Tom Atkins bought the remaining 80 acres. “We’re in the real estate business,” he told the Columbia Daily Tribune, which suggested bigger plans he declined to reveal. “That is all I really have to say for now.”
Tom Atkins bought the remaining 80 acres
he told the Columbia Daily Tribune
Never shy about mixing business and government, developers like Atkins have had an enduring — and mysterious — interest in the Boone County Fairgrounds.
With her husband Hank Waters — as Columbia Daily Tribune publisher, the area’s leading pro-developer voice — former REDI and Columbia Chamber of Commerce chair Vicki Russell was president of the County Fair Board at the time. A Blight/EEZ/TIF proponent, Russell was also an outspoken advocate of the County’s fairgrounds purchase.
“Blood County Park”
The fairgrounds purchase sparked controversy shortly after Stamper announced plans to use profits from the lease of Boone Hospital — a county property — to finance it. “Boone Hospital trustee Walter Johnson said he’s decided to oppose a county acquisition of the fairground,” the Trib reported.
Stamper announced plans to use profits from the lease of Boone Hospital
“If this proposal goes through, I suggest the new land be called Blood County Park, and I ask every Boone Countian who has paid a hospital bill in the last decade to join me,” Johnson told fellow trustees. “The money from hospital profits is bled from patients.”
Other Fairgrounds financing plans that went nowhere showed up regularly.
A St. Louis firm proposed making the Fairgrounds home to a minor league hockey team. And after trying to avoid raiding the County’s general fund, which pays for most major services, County Commissioners suggested using it to help finance the purchase.
Fairgrounds home to a minor league hockey team
County Commissioners suggested using it
Opposition soon appeared, and from some unusual places. County Auditor June Pitchford and County Treasurer Kay Murray said the fairgrounds purchase was not a priority. “I hate to see a capital expenditure of this magnitude float above other capital needs that are more germane to the county’s primary function,” Pitchford said at the time.
fairgrounds purchase was not a priority
more germane to the county’s primary function
“I am holding my nose and going along with it,” Murray said.
Murray said
After Stamper failed to answer her questions, Pitchford’s resistance intensified. “Stamper testily defended his proposal,” the Trib reported. The Presiding Commissioner was not going to countenance any opposition.
Pitchford’s resistance intensified
But the opposition only intensified.
I hope other Columbia people are fed up with the taxes and waste this city has done in the pass such as :
1. YouZeum $8,000,000 lost . ( Yes there was tax payers money used from the Federal level )
2. Columbia dining train to Centrailia.
3. The Fair grounds ! ( The closed door meetings to get the deal done! )
4. The whole downtown .
5. The downtown driving Loop .
6 . The Can Ban ( deposit on beverage cans )
7. The fireworks display moved it to Midway( remember the parking on I-70 ) then to Boone country fair grounds( and the parking on 63 ) now to downtown were no one can see them!
8. The Columbia regional Airport ( We pour millions of tax payers money into and they want millions more for a few rich people in Columbia to have a larger sandbox to play in )
9 . The Smoking shelter at the airport 8 feet by 10 feet ( at a cost of $ 430. 00 a sq. ft.) at a total of $34,400.00
10. The parking Downtown garages that was built only so student housing could be built !
11. Student housing over load , that in a few years to come will become section 8 housing !
12. Sewer over load ( because of student housing )
13. The Getabout Columbia campaign .
14. Grocery store Plastic bags
15.Roll Carts .
16. Nothing has been decided, but there are some council members that, I believe, would be agreeable to pay $5+- million for the ice plant, another $.5+- million to tear down the existing asbestos laden building, for a small expansion to Flat Branch Park or rent it at the ridiculous price of $20.000.00 a month !
And the parks will waste this money in the same way this whole city has done in the past !