Civic Center Heartburn, part deux

Ok, so Curmudgeon admits:

Curmudgeon was wrong, sort of –

Curmudgeon’s predictions aren’t always 100 percent right, but then I never claimed to be clairvoyant.

If you watched Tuesday night’s Copperas Cove council meeting, you’ll see that no, councilman Jay Manning DIDN’T ask that the Chamber of Commerce’s Military Affairs Committee be allowed to use the civic center for FREEEEEEE. He didn’t ask for that specifically. He just asked for the civic center rental rates to be reduced and blamed what he sees as the loss of revenue from the rental of city facilities due to the civic center rental rate increases.

Oopsie. My mistake. Maybe I was being just a TAD histrionic in my last couple of posts about the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce wanting everything for FREEEEEEE.

his·tri·on·ic (histrēˈänik)

adjective -  Overly theatrical or melodramatic in character or style.

"a histrionic outburst"

synonyms: melodramatic, theatrical, dramatic, exaggerated, stagy, actorly, showy, affected, artificial, overacted, overdone.

Histrionic.

But, it was no more histrionic than Councilman Charlie Youngs’ discussion Tuesday night about the rental rates and the past council's action to raise rental rates. He is clearly very angry at certain fellow council members and this is troubling. But, citizens elected this angry man. Kinda scary.

Anyhoo, do you think it was any coincidence that Mr. Robert O’Dell, chairman of the Military Affairs Committee, was present at the meeting on Tuesday evening and spoke to the council? Oh! This was carefully orchestrated, all we needed was the sad violins in the background.

No, Mr. O'Dell didn’t mention the civic center fees, nor did he appear sad. He did say that the committee met and figured out another solution. (Why it took one year to find a location for a simple banquet, I don’t know. So, your venue price went up. Figure it out. Don't gossip around town. New people come here all the time and if you want to put your best foot forward with Fort Hood, quit the smack-talk,  y'all.)

Mr. O'Dell said everything worked out great at the new location (Holy Family Church social hall, although he didn’t specifically name it).

Yet Mr. Youngs said the (wahhhhh) Military Affairs Committee was “cut off at the knees.”

Last I saw, I haven't seen anyone crawling around with amputated stumps, trying to plan a simple DINNER. (Oops, a bit of SNARK LEAK.). Mr. O’Dell’s only issue with the newest venue for the dinners was that they couldn’t grill steaks there. Why not? Why can’t they bring grills on site to the church, then take them away again? Surely, the grills are somewhere? Is there a rule that you can’t bring grills to the church?

Well played, Charlie “Histronia” Youngs. Mr. Manning and Mr. Youngs are championing their root cause and the 300 or so voters who put them in office – the Copperas Cove Chamber of Commerce (remember, private, special-interest, members-only group cloaked as a nonprofit).

Question, dear council: Why don't you remind the Military Affairs Committee that it can get a discount on the civic center rental if it negotiates with the interim city manager? OH, it's got to be a public purpose. Well, it seems to me the way the council will vote, ANYTHING dealing with the chamber of commerce (private, members-only group) has a PUBLIC PURPOSE now, because that's all relative. 

(Wait. I'm being silly. Charlie Youngs and company are effectively doing an "up yours" gesture by these actions to the other seated council members they don't like. How does their ax-grinding benefit the city of Copperas Cove's residents? Well, Cove, you elected 'em!)

Anyhoo, I’m digressing.

Back to the Copperas Cove Civic Center fees.

Did it occur to any of you, dear City Council, that the Copperas Cove isn’t the only local venue for events? There are more and more venues – private venues – that are available for larger groups? They may have a comparable cost to the civic center. Some might even cost a bit more. But people are willing to PAY MORE for something they believe has a better VALUE.

To credit the civic center, the inside looks a LOT better than it used to. Decent bathrooms, a good-sized kitchen, nice stained concrete floors. Sound, stage, chairs, etc. available for use. But the exterior of the building is ugly and the parking is, uh, yuck. The rental rates have LITTLE to do with why this place doesn't rent more often. But, we haven't seen specific numbers. Maybe, just maybe, Mr. Manning's looking at the numbers is skewed and he's making assumptions.

It's not overpriced. It's just that what we have could be BETTER. Why doesn't the council request more upgrades and improvements to this building? Get a quote on upgrades and add it to the CO bonds one year. Easy-peasy. We are GREAT at putting up new buildings but horrible at sustaining what we DO have. (This latest move by the council is nothing more than a ploy for the chamber military affairs committee to get the old rates back. It has little to do with increasing revenue. We shall see more about this.)

Anyhoo, about the civic center - what has the city even done to market the civic center as a rental? The quarterly magazines from the Parks & Rec is one thing, but it's not enough.

The main reason Allin House, one of Copperas Cove historic landmarks and a crumbling gem, is on the chopping block is that it was NOT MARKETED. You would think that as much as you are TRYING TO SHOW OFF COPPERAS COVE TO FORT HOOD, that you, dear council, would urge the city to make more of an effort to do so. Oops, digressing again along another Rabbit Fest Trail. I’ll save that for another day.

Curmudgeon also has more to say about Tuesday night’s meeting, but Curmudgeon is tempering its snark flood. Forget snark leak! But I AM right about some predictions. Stay tuned!

Peace, love, and bunnies, y’all!