In Springdale, Ark., a referendum passed on July 11, 2006 to build a baseball park by extending a 1% sales tax. The vote was close – passing by only 15 votes, 2,408 to 2,393.
The government leaders didn’t hesitate to get started. A ground-breaking ceremony for the new 6,500-seat park was held on February 28, 2007. The budget for construction is $34 million.
They will play their first game in the new park on April 10, 2008.
In Pensacola, we pass our referendum less than 60 days after Springdale does. Still no bonds have been issued. There has been no groundbreaking ceremony. Weeds haven’t even been cut on the site.
We will be lucky to break ground on the Community Maritime Park before the first pitch is thrown in Springdale.
The excuse you will hear from the city council and city staff is the site has environmental issues that need to be handled. Those issues could have been worked out in 2005 and 2006 while the project was being debated. A proactive council or a strong mayor would have had the land ready to build the very second the referendum passed.
Instead we wait two to three months to appointed a board of trustees. It takes another three months to approve someone to design the design criteria (this is not a typo). We still don’t have an executive director. It will be another two to three months before we pick a master developer. Then we will have to wait another two to three months for the new master developer to submit his plans. We might have the park built by 2010. Springdale and Billings will be in their third seasons. I suspect another three or four ballpark will be completed in other cities during the same time frame.
Here, instead of laying foundations and putting 1500 construction workers to work, we have a group arguing that African-Americans should be the only minority covered by the Covenant with the Community. We are still waiting to see the Florida Supreme Court will force another referendum.
This is insane!