Our view: Support for sports complex comes with questions
Published 3:00 pm Monday, March 18, 2024
- The youth sports complex, spearheaded by the Round-Up City Development Corp., will be located at the intersection of Airport Road and Northwest Stage Gulch Road, a few miles outside downtown Pendleton. As of March 8, 2024, the location is made up of open fields, waiting for construction to start once state funding comes through.
A tip of the hat should go to state Sen Bill Hansell for helping spearhead an effort to move the ambitious plan to build a sports complex in Pendleton forward recently.
Hansell was instrumental in earmarking $3 million in state money for the project. The money is part of Senate Bill 5701 the House and Senate passed earlier this month and the edict now awaits a signature of Gov. Tina Kotek.
Hansell, as many readers probably already know, has retired after this last legislative session. His departure will be felt in the years to come and his vast, respectable public career will stand the test of time.
With the money, the Round-Up City Development Corp. can begin construction on a project that is expected to cost north of $30 million. The project is one of those feel-good ventures that we support and hope it fulfills the lofty expectations already set for it.
The man behind the project, Joseph Hull, the president of RCDC, believes in its potential and we, as well, see that same potential.
Hull is juggling many different roles now. Not only is he the ramrod behind the sports complex but he also serves as the president of the Pendleton Planning and Zoning Commission. He is also running for mayor.
Voters should remember that the project, for all of its obvious advantages, is most likely going to come to fruition through public dollars. That means the money will come from your wallet or purse.
Hull said the money from the state will “get the complex active.”
Yet Hull has also said that, ideally, the rest of the money for the $30 million project will come in the form of a municipal bond from the city.
If so, that means Hull’s idea will be strictly a publicly funded project and that means voters — and elected leaders — have a responsibility to make sure any and all questions about the facility are answered.
A sports complex on the scale that Hull envisions is certainly a grand project that it is hard not to support. The complex could, in and of itself, be a driver for tourism which, in turn, generates dollars back into the community.
But make no mistake. As currently structured, this is a project that will be bought and paid for by taxpayer dollars. That means voters can’t brush away the hard questions about funding and profit-sharing if the project succeeds.
