Nearly 100 have made RiverPark pledges

By Keith Lawrence, Messenger-Inquirer
Published: Thursday, March 17, 2011 12:25 AM CDT

In the past week, nearly 100 people and businesses have made or pledged donations to the RiverPark Center's drive to raise $1 million by Aug. 31, David Renshaw, the performing arts center's board chairman, said Wednesday.

"I don't have a dollar amount yet," he said. "But we've had inquiries from people considering some fairly sizable donations. We're very optimistic that we'll make it."

The RiverPark Center had raised $50,000 before announcing the drive last week. Those contributions were made by volunteers and members of the center's staff and board.

Last week, Daviess Fiscal Court pledged $1 million to help retire the center's $4.6 million debt.

The city, which owns the building, will take care of the remaining $2.6 million debt -- if the RiverPark Center raises the $1 million.

If it doesn't, the deal is off the table, city and county officials said last week.

The county's money comes from a surplus that's built up since 2002, when Fiscal Court approved adding a 1.375 percent tax on motel rooms to help retire the RiverPark Center's debt and fund a climate control system at the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art.

Sometime between 2002 and 2005, the tax was raised to 2 percent because county officials weren't sure that 1.375 percent would be enough.

The fine art museum debt has been paid off, so that money is also accumulating.

"Each 1 percent of the tax raises about $125,000 a year," Judge-Executive Al Mattingly said earlier this week. "We need 1.375 percent to pay the bonds on the RiverPark Center. That leaves roughly a $85,000 surplus each year."

The reason Aug. 31 was set as the time to turn the county's $1 million over to the RiverPark Center, he said, is that's about when the surplus will reach $1 million.

It stood at $920,000 in December.

"One million dollars sounds better than $920,000," Mattingly said. "And we'll be able to give it to the RiverPark Center then without having to use any county tax money."

The motel tax is mostly on visitors to Daviess County, not those who live here.

Mattingly said the county intends to allow the surplus to accumulate until another use is found for it.

State law mandates that money collected from the tax can only be used to pay bonded indebtedness on tourism-related projects. It can't go for operating expenses.

The RiverPark Center and the downtown events center are the only tourism-related projects with bonded indebtedness in the county.

Mattingly and Karen Miller, executive director of the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau, both expect the surplus to grow faster once the events center and a new downtown hotel open in two years.

The Executive Inn Rivermont, the city's largest hotel, closed in June 2008. And motel revenues have fallen since then.

"We had a banner year in 2008-09," Miller said. But "in 2009-10 we saw a drop of 12 percent in (motel) revenue, We saw our drop in numbers about one year later than other communities" that have been affected by the recession.

She said motel receipts this year will probably be about the same as last year -- still down more than 10 percent from two years ago.

But Miller said, "All those numbers will go up after the events center and new hotel open. We will have much more to offer to conventions, entertainment, meetings, sporting events and trade shows."

The county surplus was discovered last fall. Then Judge-Executive Reid Haire suggested that it be split between the RiverPark Center and the events center.

But Fiscal Court members decided to let the money accumulate until the new court that took office in January decided what to do with it.

The RiverPark Center was struggling with its debt in 2002 and convinced Fiscal Court to levy the motel tax to pay off a 20-year bond that was being sold to help alleviate part of the then-$7 million debt.

The 1.375 percent tax generated enough annual income to allow the county to borrow $2.2 million.

Of that, $1.8 million went to the RiverPark Center to reduce its debt and the remaining $400,000 was given to the fine art museum to buy a climate control system to protect pieces of art.

In 2002, the county also considered putting on the ballot a referendum to add 2 cents per $100 of assessed property valuation to the county's tax rate.

That would have generated $900,000, to be divided among all the arts organizations.

But county officials decided that the time wasn't right for such a referendum.

For more information about donating to the drive, check go to riverparkcenter.com and click on the million dollar match icon or go to http://riverparkcenter.com/get-involved/million-dollar-match-pledge-and-donations.html.

Keith Lawrence, 691-7301, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it