|
|
|
| Wed, Dec. 02 - - Mobile - RSS | |
|
|
Council approves Kalahari letter
City County approves letter of intent with Kalahari
Date published: 1/23/2008 BY EMILY BATTLE A letter of intent that lays out the terms of an incentives agreement offered to Kalahari Resorts for a water park hotel it wants to build in Celebrate Virginia got support from six of seven Fredericksburg City Council members last night. The vote means that Fredericksburg officials will use the basic business terms of the letter to work out a performance agreement for an incentive deal that would waive about $3.5 million in upfront fees for the more than $200 million project, and return 47.5 percent of Kalahari's local taxes to it over 20 years once its resort is up and running. Before their vote, council members heard an hour's worth of comments from the public that both praised and castigated the Kalahari deal. Many of those comments came from the same people who spoke at last week's three-hour public hearing on Kalahari. Once it came time for the council to act, the sole objector to the vote for the letter of intent was Councilwoman Debby Girvan. "A vote on this is inappropriate at this time. There has not been enough due diligence," said Girvan, who was one of four council members who spent two days earlier this month at Kalahari's resort in Sandusky, Ohio. All six of her colleagues felt otherwise. Councilman Matt Kelly said those who oppose Kalahari because they think it will detract from the city's historic character have to realize that the city needs new sources of money to pay its growing bills. "If you want to protect Fredericksburg you have got to give us the opportunity to raise the revenue to do it," he said. "We can't afford to sit here and say something better will come." Councilman Marvin Dixon likened Kalahari President Todd Nelson to "a suitor," and said Fredericksburg would be unwise to reject him. "I think that anything we do that would cause this suitor to leave would be a shame and a disappointment, and I certainly wouldn't want my fingerprints on any part of that," he said. Girvan raised a variety of objections to the vote for the letter of intent.
Read more stories about Fredericksburg Date published: 1/23/2008
water park
(posted by
drewgruber
, Jan. 28, 2008 9:54 am)
Dearest Residents. You want more entertainment option like this after such a major water crisis last year? Visitors from surrounding counties will come, causing increased traffic on fall hill, route 1, 3 and 95. Something that already hurts. The tax dollars will be sunk into the CV and CP area and the downtown will fall apart, no person is going to want to go to the battlefield or downtown when they can be at a water park. Perfect Fredericksburg, continue to drive up your living costs and destroy your town.
Genuine pearls...
(posted by
freedomfirst
, Jan. 24, 2008 6:46 pm)
Before genuine swine....
Yawn
(posted by
poppinjay
, Jan. 24, 2008 2:29 pm)
More comments from people who haven't yet attempted to research this deal. Yes, of course Kalahari will hire illegal aliens. In fact, i heard Todd Nelson was researching if he could find actual aliens from the movie ALIEN so they could come et us all and use up all of our water. I also heard he plans to spring felons from the RRJ to run the petting farm, which will be stocked with rattlers and pit bulls. And he plans to serve children at the snack bars. Literally, fricaseed children.
Part II
(posted by
freedomfirst
, Jan. 24, 2008 9:44 am)
In short, run government like a business, with the citizen the customer. Provide what the customer wants at the lowest price. If the customer isn't buying, don't give it to them. All the counties in the area have major budget problems, they need more tax dollars to keep their go go sytems going, but fewer people are moving in, so fewer new customers. You can't keep charging fewer customers more, you have to reduce expenses and charge less.
Maybe our schools should be on a tuition basis...(I am ducking)
I am going to ignore skibum's blathering but Matt has a point..
(posted by
freedomfirst
, Jan. 24, 2008 9:33 am)
I am not disagreeing with you Matt . I know that the council and Mayor are expected by individuals and pressure groups and other external forces to do everything they want. I am suggesting that our representatives in government need to respect our money first, just like our freedom. If citizens want the city to provide garbage bags, charge them. If they want to use the library charge them to make the library pay for itself. Do this with everything user driven, then reduce our taxes. UF mandates -ce la vie.
|
 |
|||
|
|||
