School Repairs AND a New Stadium!

Sunday’s Register & Bee editorial went down the wrong track by saying that Danville City Council had more enthusiasm for a new football stadium than for school repairs. Considering that they didn’t even have a reporter at the discussion that night, they’re totally wrong.

Let’s begin with that editorial I mentioned…

More than just football field at stake

(Register & Bee article, paywall may apply unless you break through it)

Now, let’s talk some facts. The J.T. Christopher stadium track is unusable and can not be fixed with a very large amount of money because of a natural water flow underneath it. The GWHS track team hasn’t been able to hold any home meets for the last few years because of that. The stadium is getting old and will continue to deteriorate. More facts: The schools need a lot of repairs and renovations. There might even be a need for replacements down the road. Danville City Council gave around $7 million in the coming year’s capital improvement budget. For round numbers, let’s say that the school board is saying that there’s still about $50 million more needed system-wide.

The current thought process in City Council’s discussions about the stadium have absolutely nothing to do with the school system’s repair needs. They came up with the concept to think big, and that’s a good concept under these circumstances. The big idea is build a sports facility like the Smith River Sports Complex in Henry County. The Martinsville & Henry County governments got together and established the Southern Virginia Recreation Facilities Authority. That legal entity worked with the Harvest Foundation (their equivalent to the Danville Regional Foundation) and got the complex built. It’s been a success in both adding recreation opportunities for the citizens as well as for economic development by bringing in sports tournaments.

Here’s how the plan is looking like in the early stages. The city is spending $150,000 for a study to see exactly how bad of a shape that the GW football stadium is in. Now before somebody yells “OH MY GOD ANOTHER CONSULTANT!”. the city doesn’t have the manpower and expertise needed for analyzing something like this. If they did, they’d be sitting around doing busy work until a project like this comes along every ten years or so. $150,000 is a legitimate expense to get the 100% correct answers in this case. Next, they’re going to allocate $1.5 million as “seed money” for either the needed stadium repairs or a possible sports complex. And let’s be real, $1.5 million probably isn’t going to come close to getting the stadium back where it should be.

If the city can leverage their $1.5 million with grants and foundation money into $5+ million and build a new stadium complex, that’s a damned good business deal for the city no matter how you look at it. That scenario is very likely. The city has the $1.5 million in unreserved funding now. The school system is fully funded per the school board’s request and they’re doing rather well. So anybody that claims that the $1.5 million should go to education instead of a stadium is creating a false dichotomy. The city can continue to support education at well above the state mandated minimums like they are doing now, and look towards the future with the stadium complex idea.

Let’s finish this up by talking about the school system’s capital improvement needs. That approximate $50 million dollars can be pulled together with bond referendums. You’ll note that I said referendums. There is no need to pass a giant $50 million referendum all at once. The city could handle that much debt, but it would be better to handle it in multiple smaller bond issues while also working on the problem through the annual capital improvement plan process. That’s the smart way to take care of a problem that won’t go away on its own. The previous versions of the school board had not made capital improvements a high priority and now that bill is coming due.

The Register & Bee’s editorial framed the discussion as either school improvements or a new/repaired stadium. That’s the wrong way to look at it.

Danville can do both at the same time.