The Winston-Salem City Council may consider appointing someone to replace a member of the Citizens Baseball Stadium Review Committee at the council's next meeting on Sept. 21, a city official said last night.
Mayor Allen Joines will recommend the person after consulting with Council Members Vivian Burke and Robert Clark about the candidate, said Greg Turner, an assistant city manager. Turner spoke about the vacancy after the committee met for nearly three hours yesterday.
The vacancy was created when Dan Barrett resigned recently. Barrett, a senior vice president at ISP Sports on Trade Street, gave up his position after he learned that one of his supervisors, Ben Sutton, had contributed money to help build the stadium, Joines said last week.
Sutton is the creator of ISP and one of the private investors who gave money to Billy Prim, the owner of the Winston-Salem Dash and the developer of the stadium complex.
Gary Strickland, another committee member, quit before Barrett left the committee. Strickland, a contractor, told city officials that he did not feel comfortable reviewing confidential documents related to the general contractor that is building the stadium.
Earlier this month, the council voted to replace Strickland with William B. Kay, a retired civil engineer.
The committee has a policy that says in part that "no committee member shall have a private, personal or monetary interest, enter direct or indirect, in connection with the baseball stadium, or any financial venture associated…" with it.
Eric Prior, the committee's chairman, said he wasn't worried about two members of the group having resigned to avoid a conflict of interest.
"There is a policy in place, and it is important that there is no conflict," Prior said.
The committee spent most of the meeting discussing the financing of the baseball stadium. The city council created the committee last month after many residents asked for more transparency about the city's role in the stadium.
The city recently approved another $15.7 million for the stadium, which is expected to cost $48.7 million. Two years ago, the city approved $12 million for the project. The city expects to recoup most of its money through a combination of ticket surcharges and payments by Prim over 25 years.
The stadium initially was estimated to cost $22.6 million. Work on the 5,500-seat stadium stopped late last year.
In an effort to save the stadium, private investors contributed $3 million, including $2 million from Prim.
During the committee's meeting, City Manager Lee Garrity noted a change in what had been reported about other uses of the stadium.
Prim will not as reported stage two free concerts a year. However, a nonprofit group or other organization can use the stadium for the events, and Prim would not charge the groups rent, Garrity said after the meeting. Prim would not get any revenue from the events. The public might have to pay to attend.
â– John Hinton can be reached at 727-7299 or at jhinton@wsjournal.com.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement