08/22/1974 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mrs. Sharpe's statements at Special Council Meeting on August 22, 1974. Mr. President, fellow councilmen, I am going to be very vocal tonight. I have been studying the Koster Feasibility Study, I have conversed with individuals oho ha+rs made a study of creation Coerpleses and T also am aware of the ecaaomic situation our Country is in at the present time. We have a21 been looking long asul hard at the proposal before us this evening. We have all pwbLtcly said mat ae would bs proud to ha~ae such a facility in the Citq of Forth Olssted. And I am sure ws all meant what we said. No one on Council has wonted this recreation center axrre than I do. No one has been more vocal in its svMp~t't than I have been. Sut, I thick the time has case for us to take a se~-d look, and I would like to outline some of the reasons for ioay belief that what once seemed to be a workable proposition now may be a less-theme-psect financial ventuyce. Since the Koster feasibility study was dons nearly a year ego, in October of 1973, we have seen many changes in the economic coaditian of our cousttry - changes that affect us locally just as muds as they do on a nations]. level. We have seen the beginning and end of venous wage and price control measures. We have and still are living through a period of inflation tsc~h+eard of before in our own lifetime: evergwhere ws look we see primes skyrocketing beyond our wildest imaginations, Ysaple csst barely afford to even can their own homes, let alone buy food at reasonable prices. Soros econosrlats are now saying that we are either on Cho threshlsold of or, even worse, already in the midst of a receassion. And we're talking about spending over three million dollars far recrsatiaa. If we look at eves the most recent history, local voter reactions and other signs point to hasards ahead in the area of rec complex planning. You undoatbtetdly ue aware of the Tuesay vote in the City of Strestigsville where a meager 20 percent of voters turned out to defeat by a vote of 846 to 638 a proposed tax-supported swiming pool codex. votasrs in our own city have turned down such a proposal more than once at the polls. Fairview Park residents are even caw waging a vigor,vus campaign to defeat council's intention to build a testnias complex + pexhaps the most lucretive sport of all at present, The mast glaring example of the poor batting average of city rec c+rasplexes is also close to h~'~me, in Rocky River Viers city officials rscaatly disclosed - reluctantly, I might add that their city-owned swies~ing pool-ice rink coeplex is running $71,844, in the red after only taco years and seven. months of operation. And projections a~sde by some Viers of cowac3l sheet that the deficit can Daly grow larger with the passing of time. And we're talking about spsndi~tg three ffi.1Lfon dollars for a rec center we've bean claiming will support itself? Why is our proposal the one that will succeed when (1) we have no clear evidence that the residents wish +~ to spend their money in Chia nMmt-er, and (2) other recreation projects nearby are showing us that such proposals can become financial failures.