Committee plans to tour stadium

Committee members picked to watch over the city's baseball stadium expenses will tour the stadium next Thursday, but probably won't start reviewing actual spending requests until the next week, city officials said.

The 11-member committee had its first meeting yesterday at City Hall. One member was absent, and another discovered that he may have to resign if he wants to do business with the city in the future.

The committee's job will be to oversee the spending of $12.7 million in city money that has been earmarked for two purposes: $8 million to buy the land under the stadium and $4.7 million to spend on so-called "hard" construction costs -- money spent for actual construction instead of consulting fees and the like.

The city council created the committee in a bid to make city spending on the project an open process as the work goes forward.

"Our job is to make it work," committee member J. Aubrey Kirby said after the meeting. "I hope I can make a contribution."

The 5,500-seat stadium is to be the home of the Winston-Salem Dash, the city's minor-league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. Construction has been stalled for about six months as team owner Billy Prim sought to refinance the deal and buy out the share of an investment partner. General contractor Samet Corp. and a number of subcontractors have piled up stacks of unpaid bills totaling $10 million.

In addition to the new city money, a group of banks is lending the stadium developers $15 million, with investors led by Prim chipping in $3 million to add to their original stake of $2.7 million.

City officials have estimated that it will take about $14.7 million in new spending to finish construction on the $40.7 million stadium. Earlier, the city had paid $12 million toward the project. The city is also advancing $2 million to be covered by a federal grant.

Committee members yesterday learned about the steps they will go through to review spending. When a contractor submits a bill, the city and Bank of America -- the bank that is handling the payments -- will review it and, if it's approved, send it on to city officials and the committee for further review.

The committee will get a chance to question payments and ask Assistant City Manager Greg Turner to find answers. Turner said that the committee has to be satisfied with the information it is getting before the bill goes to the next step and the city's portion of it gets paid.

Because of the large amount of unpaid contractor bills, Turner said after the meeting that it is possible that the city's $4.7 million in construction money could get spent fairly quickly -- although that depends on how the attorneys for the city and the banks decide to order the payments.

When the city has spent its remaining share of the money, Turner said, the committee would continue to review progress on stadium construction and stadium operations when the project is finished. But once the city's share of money is gone the committee would no longer be able to stop a payment because of some unanswered concern.

Turner said that the city would like to spread out its payments over a longer period of time, but added that the banks would prefer a different arrangement.

"I think they would prefer that the investors' (money) go first, then city money and then the banks' money, so it gets finished with their money," Turner said.

Sitting on the committee are eight Republicans -- Dan Barrett, Ronald Bird, Howard V. Hudson Jr., Kirby, Eric Prior, Mary Reynolds, Gordon Slade and Gary H. Strickland -- and three Democrats -- Brenda Diggs, David Freeman and Dolores Hill.

Hudson did not attend the first meeting. Strickland, a contractor who is the president of Hugh G. Strickland Inc., found out that he may not be able to continue on the committee because of rules that forbid committee members from entering into contracts with the city.

■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.

Stadium to-do list

Work to finish the downtown baseball stadium will cost $14.7 million. Among the major projects that need to be completed are:

□ Final grading.

□ Water and sewer utilities.

□ Landscaping and grass.

□ Fence and gates.

□ Parking lots and driveways.

□ Sidewalks, traffic control and intersection improvements.

□ Playground and main entrance area.

□ Playing field sod, drainage and irrigation system.

□ Scoreboard and LED signage.

□ Stadium seating and railings.

□ Interior finishes and railings.

□ Electrical and plumbing finish-outs.

□ Public address system.

□ Public art.