Howard School, obligations forefront of commission stadium talks
Hamilton County Deputy Mayor Cory Gearrin giving a presentation on the new deal surrounding the South Broad Stadium.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- The newest deal in the ongoing saga of the South Broad Stadium was presented to the Hamilton County Commission on Wednesday morning.
First presented Tuesday night at the Chattanooga City Council, the Hamilton County Commission got their turn to learn and debate this new plan.
The new deal releases some of the burden off of the county as only city tax revenues will go towards over a $30 million dollar private loan that covers the recent cost increase.
Commissioner Dr. Steve Highlander said, “I hope we can develop this property. It is concerning to think that my grandchildren will be in their 30s and 40s when this is paid off.”
Economist Mark Mamantov told the Commission, “You will be asked to bless the Sports Authority by five million, you will not be responsible for it in any way.”
The county will still bear its original burdens from the original $79.5 million deal which Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp says could still provide future issues.
He said, “There’s no way to know what the number is, but we believe the county and city will incur debt service shortfall, and that the projections are likely unrealistic.”
Mayor Wamp argues that getting out of the private loan is huge for the county.
He said, “The good news is, as soon as we can make those basic debt service payments, the county will be able to begin immediately refunding ourselves with any excess incremental financing.”
The scope of the South Broad Stadium deal has expanded beyond just the TIF area. It has now expanded to include the Howard School right behind me, which Mayor Wamp says should have been included a long time ago.
Mayor Wamp said, “Our intent is not that these would be deferred maintenance items.”
He said they are still hashing out details on what the money would go towards at the Howard School.
Some commissioners questioned why these improvements weren’t a part of the ongoing Hamilton County School Facilities Plan.
Commissioner Gene-O Shipley asked, “So once we work through this, we’re not going to hurt ourselves on bonding the amount of money we need to build new schools, correct?”
Wamp said of the difference of this investment, “The needs there and even the opportunities to bring forward community benefits, they’re just very different from the types of projects that were included in that school facilities plan ,because the idea there was to bring a principled approach to how can we reduce the amount of school facilities.”
Hamilton County Deputy Mayor Cory Gearrin says that they hope both Chattanooga City Council and Hamilton County Commission will enter into a memorandum of understanding on this agreement next week.
