Listen to the Money Talk
Local politicos do some early Christmas shopping
Over a period of 30 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, local governmental entities gave their blessing to approximately $45 million worth of new construction projects (financing not included).
On Tuesday, Mono County Supervisors voted 4-1 (Larry Johnston the holdout) to pursue financing options for a new $21.3 million South County government building.
On Wednesday, Mammoth Lakes Town Council committed to spend $9.5 million on a new Multi-Use Facility (Ice Rink).
Council also decided Wednesday to contribute $2.5 million out of Measure U Funds to the proposed MACC (Arts Center) being spearheaded by the Mammoth Lakes Foundation. The Arts Center has an estimated price tag of $14 million.
South County Facility:
Tuesday marked the day where County Supervisors finally called the bluff of the Sierra Center Mall ownership.
Supervisors believed the Sierra Center’s monetary terms for a lease and/or purchase were unfavorable, and its performance as a landlord untenable.
For District 3 Supervisor Bob Gardner, it was all about a window.
As Gardner explained, there was a window in the County Administrative Officer’s (CAO) conference room that has been broken. He saw it as a symbol of the mall’s commitment (or lack of commitment) to taking care of maintenance issues. So he waited. And waited. Six months he waited. The window, he said, was ironically fixed on Monday, the day before the meeting—too little, too late, as far as Gardner was concerned.
“All things being equal,” he said, “I would have signed another lease. I’m not crazy about [pursuing] new construction. But all things are not equal.”
