最新杏吧原创

The agreement, signed in April 2019, was part of a deal between 最新杏吧原创 County and the 最新杏吧原创 Convention and Visitors Commission to help fund the $210 million expansion of America鈥檚 Center in downtown 最新杏吧原创. The agreement provided that the CVC would spend 35% of the county鈥檚 hotel-motel tax revenue that was not already encumbered by other projects on a new North County facility.

The agreement was negotiated by then-Councilwoman Hazel Erby, D-1st District, who sponsored the measure to fund the America鈥檚 Center expansion. At the time, CVC President Kitty Ratcliffe said the project could be based in a North County suburb, such as Florissant, Ferguson or Normandy.

There was no more public discussion about the proposed rec center until March 2020, when the County Council approved a CVC request for a $15.3 million advance on the America鈥檚 Center project. During a hearing on the vote, Erby鈥檚 successor, Rita Heard Days, asked Ratcliffe for an update on the rec center, pointing to other areas of the county that have more recreational facilities than her district, which includes part or all of 41 municipalities.

Ratcliffe said the CVC hired a consultant to determine what type of recreation would best serve North County, telling Days the consultant had reportedly prepared a draft that identified 鈥渙ne or two particular sports,鈥� and that she would return to the council with more details.

The project wasn鈥檛 discussed publicly again until local government watchdog Tom Sullivan raised the issue to the council in recent public meetings.

鈥淚t is now more than two years later and no word of any recreation center,鈥� Sullivan said during the council鈥檚 regular meeting Tuesday. Sullivan directed his comments to Days, who is now the council鈥檚 chairwoman. 鈥淢adam Chair, do you know what鈥檚 going on with the promised recreation center? Or perhaps the question should be: 鈥檇o you even care?鈥欌��

In an interview, Days said she 鈥渉ad not heard anything鈥� about the recreation center since last year and that she had not pursued updates on the proposal because of other issues on the agenda.

鈥淚t was a good reminder if you don鈥檛 keep on top of these things, they鈥檒l slip through the cracks,鈥� Days said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been going through a lot of things with the county at this particular point, and I have not put any kind of effort toward that until now. I will be doing that, looking at the commitment that was made.鈥�

Erby, Days鈥� predecessor, could not be reached for comment.

In an email, Ratcliffe said efforts toward the recreation center were halted when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the region in March, around the time she told the council about the study.

The pandemic shuttered the tourism industry, Ratcliffe said, forcing the CVC to furlough staff. She said the CVC would resume the study as the tourism industry recovers.

鈥淥ur organization and our industry have been in survival mode since March 2020,鈥� Ratcliffe said. 鈥淭here are good things happening now, but there simply were no resources available last year to carry on with the study. Most of our staff were furloughed in 2020, and we are now working in 2021 with a permanent reduction of 38%. However, as things have started to turn the corner, it is time to pick this project back up again.鈥� Asked for a progress report on the study, Ratcliffe said, 鈥淚t is still in an unfinished form, not in a form that could be shared.鈥� And she said the study would need to be updated to account for 鈥渃hanges to area sports complexes that have occurred,鈥� including a proposed sports complex in Chesterfield.

That complex, a 97,000-square-foot facility called Fieldhouse, is set break ground in the fall.

Meanwhile, north 最新杏吧原创 County is expected to see a youth sports center in Hazelwood funded in part with hotel tax revenue. The County Council in February approved spending $6 million in hotel tax revenue to help fund a long-standing plan for POWERplex, a $54 million mega youth sports complex by developer Dan Buck, to be built at the site of the moribund 最新杏吧原创 Outlet Mall.

The CVC in 2018 approved the $6 million request to pay for about 10% of the POWERplex project, but only after all other financing was secured. Hazelwood and the state of Missouri have also committed funding to the project, and Buck promised the council that private investors would follow. Councilman Ernie Trakas, R-6th District, was the sole vote against the funding. Other sports centers in the county include the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, and the Maryville University Hockey Center in Chesterfield.

Ratcliffe did not respond when asked who was hired to do the rec center study and when the study would be completed.