I guess this wasn’t the N&R’s endorsement of the bonds after all. This is, with the exception of the $20 million Parks & Rec bond. Take that, City Council member Mike Barber. The N&R calls the $12 million swim facility a “want” instead of a “need,” but since when do they distinguish “wants” versus “needs?”
The $50 million War Memorial Auditorium renovation is a need, however. The N&R uses some melodramatic language to prove its point, saying the “building is crumbling and risks deteriorating beyond repair. That could happen in as soon as five years, coliseum officials say.”
That’s the kind of logic the Rhino’s John Hammer (who by the way, opposes the bonds) calls bs on when the city talks about the ‘deterioration’ of War Memorial Stadium.
Hammer writes (unposted) about the auditorium bond:
(City Manager Mitch) Johnson has said that if the city doesn’t spend $50 million on the building it might as well be torn down because it’s not worth trying to repair. In a normal city a statement like that might get a manager fired, but in Greensboro it just means the council votes to put the bond on the ballot……If the bonds don’t pass maybe the city will regain its sense of reason and start fixing up the building as it has done with other buildings.
With that in mind, what’s the reasoning behind hiring an ‘assistant communications manager’ at a salary of $121,000 when the city is trying to trim its budget during these tough times? Give me a break on that one.
