Locals voice their concerns about the potential event center funding.

A new group called the Community Council has formed in Rocky Mount, which is focusing on the City’s plan to build a Event Center somewhere downtown. The group recently held it first (no media allowed) meeting this pass Wednesday (2/5) at the Braswell Library.

The topic was the Event Center cost and taxes.

Residents questioning the wisdom of building an event center in Rocky Mount are raising concerns that city officials will have to raise property taxes to cover its costs.

They said they are worried that possible other funding sources identified by a consulting firm would not generate anywhere near enough dollars to cover the annual debt and operating costs of the center.

And they said some of the potential funding options outlined in a report to the city by AECOM Technical Services out of Chicago aren’t feasible, or would require approvals from elected officials that aren’t likely. (Source: Read more)

A local Citizen had this to say,

meeting at the Library on Wednesday. Skip Carney secretary of the group was on FM 99.3 Thursday morning and he said the media was not invited. I called in and said although the media was not invited they could have attended. However anyone, don't have to be media, can record meetings held in a public facility and they are backed by The Open Meetings Law Statue.

I find it quite interesting this paper and WHIG-TV has not reported on the Wednesday's meeting. So what is going on? Is the group receiving special privilege? I know they can get it from WHIG-TV, but is it the case with this paper?

Since The Community Council said they wanted to educate the citizens, why did they not invite the media? Well my ignant opinion is they didn't want to expose who attended the meeting and didn't want to share what they talked about. SMDH!

He is correct members of media could have attended and took notes the old school way, pad and pen. After all the meeting was open to the public.  I guess today media don’t know how to do it “old school”, they are lost without their digital records and video cameras.

Now another person is also correct in there assessment of the Event Center,

If the event center is such a great idea, why hasn’t some private investor built one in Rocky Mount?

After all, we do have U.S. 64 and I-95.

Obviously it is not a good investment so there is not one private investor interested.

Why build an event center here?

So, is the Event Center a great ideal or just a waste of time and money?