The News & Observer is just sick about how the former Randy Parton Theater (now Roanoke Rapids Theater) has wasted taxpayer dollars and tainted their beloved candidates for governor, as its editorialists mourn today that the “project is a mess that keeps on giving. Now it’s embarrassed Beverly Perdue.” On Sunday Executive Editor John Drescher wrote:

Roanoke Rapids, 75 miles northeast of Raleigh in Halifax County,
wanted to take advantage of its proximity to I-95 to attract tourists.

So
it borrowed $21.5 million to build a theater. It cut a deal with Dolly
Parton’s brother to perform in and manage the theater for $750,000 a
year.

But the city kept parts of its agreement with Parton private. And now it’s paying the price for that secrecy.

The
bonds the city issued to fund the theater never went to a public vote.
Roanoke Rapids used a new form of financing approved by the state in
2004 that allows cities to borrow with only the approval of a state
commission….

This was a deal that needed sunlight from the beginning. It was a huge
gamble on the small city’s part — and the taxpayers there should have
known fully about the benefits and costs.

While the “secrecy” may play a small part in the failure of the theater, a larger component is the sheer lack of curiosity about this dubious deal — namely by The N&O’s editors and the local Roanoke Rapids newspaper — when it was getting started. To put it bluntly, those newspapers totally blew it on their coverage and instead decided to play cheerleaders for the project. Note this from a July 2005 N&O editorial:

Show business is uncertain even in the best of times, but to his
credit, Parton has arranged private financing for the $9 million
venture. The House version of the still-unpassed state budget includes
$750,000 to promote the entertainment district, a reasonable
expenditure that could benefit an entire region.

Local officials have high hopes that the first phase of the project
will create 2,600 jobs. Backers of an ocean-themed theater with
aquariums, movies and educational exhibits expected to cost $14 million
have announced plans to be a part of the district. Hotels and
restaurants and more entertainment venues are expected to follow….

Halifax County has a lot to offer. There’s the scenic Roanoke River,
old textile mills waiting for innovative developers, the nearby
historic village of Halifax, the “rockfish capital” of Weldon, and a
lot of hard-working people who deserve a break.

And this front-page N&O story from November 2005:

Boosters say that with the addition of motels, stores and recreational activities, Randy Parton’s
project will become a major tourist attraction and bring in some of the
thousands of cars that speed by each day. Some see the entertainment
and service industry jobs as a way to overcome setbacks from the loss
of textile jobs that largely built the area.

“It’s going to break the region wide open,” Dan Brown, head of
the Roanoke Rapids Sanitary District, said in an interview after the
ceremony. “We’re going to convert a farm into an economic engine.”

“It’s unbelievable that we’re going to be better than Branson, Mo.,” Roanoke Rapids Mayor Drewery N. Beale told the crowd.

By this time and shortly afterward, Carolina Journal had published many articles about the problems of the driving force behind the Parton project: North Carolina’s Northeast Partnership and its then-president, Rick Watson. The N&O and Roanoke Rapids Daily Herald were well aware of these stories. Had they applied any pressure at all earlier in the process to see details and records about the project, it may not have moved along nearly as far as it did. Now it’s too late. They contributed to the problem because they did not do their jobs.