Commissioner says Civic Center on road to recovery
By Greg Sowinski | Wednesday, April 15, 2009

From The Lima News:

After being on life support and facing a financial death, Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center seems to be on the path to someday being self-sufficient thanks to a new energetic director, a commissioner said Wednesday.

Allen County Commissioner Dan Reiff was praising center Director Cindy Wood for slashing the budget by $291,000 and working toward balancing a budget that has ran in the red for years.

"The board has gotten a manager who has really hit the ground running," Reiff said. "This is the most encouraging and most viable time I've seen in the Civic Center."

Reiff pledged to turn the $68,000 commissioners set aside for the possible closure and other costs of the facility to help pay its utilities and maintenance costs.

"I am leaps and bounds more confident than I was 90 days ago," Reiff said.

Reiff said he would be happy if the center could fund itself from its own revenue without needing money from the county. If the center could make money on top of that, he would be thrilled, he said.

"To get this thing close to paying for itself would be a new world," he said.

The center has two sides. One side has a 1,500 seat theater that is the biggest in a 10-county area. The other side is full of meeting and event rooms.

The center's former director, Brian Keegan, resigned in November after 15 years on the job. The center had been the focus of a debate for years because of the money it cost the county.

In recent years, commissioners stopped providing direct support and instead took over responsibility for the utilities at the center and nearby Memorial Hall. By not paying the utilities bill this year, commissioners added about $350,000 to the center's annual budget.

View article at The Lima News