South Boston/Halifax County’s The Prizery got a no-interest $60,000 loan last year from Halifax County. It’s time to repay the loan and it looks like The Prizery doesn’t have the money.
WOW! Didn’t see that one coming…
Prizery loan repayment tabled
The Prizery is awesome. It’s a very big part of Southside entertainment and culture environment. The concept was impressive and the fulfillment of that concept turned into an impressive building that can be used for multiple purposes. So why in the hell can’t the Prizery break even at least instead of continuing to ask for Other People’s Money?
Halifax County Administrator Jim Halasz Gets It. He’s got the attitude of “We want the money we loaned at no cost and we want it back when you promised it.” surprisingly, former banker Doug Bowman (who was put on the Prizery board as a condition of the loan) who’s normally quite tough on fiscal conservatism is taking the Prizery’s side in this repayment dilemma. Bowman knows how to run the financial side of any business so I do respect his viewpoint on matters like this.
However, some of his statements call for full public financial disclosure since public money is now involved. When the article says…
Bowman, who was appointed to The Prizery board last year as a condition of the loan, said he had witnessed a great deal of progress being made in the restructuring and make-up of The Prizery in its effort to become a sustainable business model.
He referred to “business hurdles” The Prizery faced last September when supervisors loaned the $60,000 saying “they have been satisfied.
“It takes a while to turn around this ship, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel on the business side,” Bowman said, adding, “Business people are running the business side now.”
…it makes people wonder what went wrong and to what extent before this latest financial problem happened. We’ve never been told specifically why and where The Prizery was losing all of this money and it seems that it’s been going on for a long time. Being an elected official, Doug Bowman is not completely doing his fiduciary duty without being more specific on what these “business hurdles” were and how they were satisfied. The Prizery has no legal obligation to disclose these issues but it would go a long way in establishing credibility with Halifax County and the region.
Here’s a list of The Prizery’s board members.
- Barbara Speece, President
- Alison Streeter, Past President
- Boo Evans, Vice President
- Andy Rice, Secretary
- Wayne Stanfield, Treasurer
- Matt Leonard, Parliamentarian
- Martin Beekman
- Jonci Berneche
- Doug Bowman
- John Cannon
- Kirk Compton
- Beverly Crowder
- Winston Harrell
- Deitra Hart
- Willa Hatcher
- Douglas Powell
- Ron Reiter
- Mike Rowe
- Patricia Ward
If you know any of these people (or even if you don’t), get in contact with them and ask the questions that you want to know the answer too. If you get may get lucky, you may get Barbara Speece to call you and then hang up once you figure out who she is (but that’s from a previous Halifax County controversy).
The Prizery got a big favor from Halifax County by getting a $60,000 no-interest loan for a year. By not repaying it on time, they’ve damaged their own credit and their credibility. To ask that the loan by paid back over six years isn’t good at all, but it may be a workable solution (if the terms of the loan are modified to pay fair-market interest on the loan). If that happens, the county will have to shuffle funds to cover up for the shortfall.Halifax County taxpayers are destined for a problem unless the loan is repaid in full and on schedule. According to their website, operating costs are $667 per day because they’re open every day whether there are performances or not. If that’s true, one easy solution would be to temporarily cut back operating hours and close for less than 90 days during the year. There’s your $60,000 in savings.
Barbara Speece’s letter (on behalf of the entire board) makes The Prizery look like they’re trying to stick the county for The Prizery’s own financial ineptitude. Asking that the loan be forgiven is outright gall and completely (and financially) unacceptable. The Prizery can’t afford to alienate any of their current supporters and this letter just reloaded the weapons of their detractors. The best solution will be for The Prizery to repay this loan as promised and go to the public banking sector for that money if needed. That’s how real business that doesn’t depend on Other People’s Money works.
The ARTS are kind of like gambling. You keep thinking that the next one will be the jackpot! The only way the Prizery will become sustainable is if the public supports them in every effort. It’s very expensive to keep any theatre going, and if we want it available to us, we have to make that effort.
I don’t live in South Boston any more, and I loved the Prizery shows when I was there, but I can’t get past the fact that a facility of this kind needs a board of 19 members? Seriously? There may be some of the issue. You also need a business person running the operations. This facility would benefit from an Executive Director (business person) and a Creative Director (developing the programs).