The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce gave a glowing report of its progress so far during a briefing for the 2014 budget at the Manhattan commission meeting on Tuesday night at city hall. However, an issue with a recent grant for a study concerning the viability of a new field house drew the attention of commissioner Wynn Butler.
Butler says he’s not upset the Chamber gave the $25,000 for the study (although he doesn’t agree with it), but wants to ensure any such future expenditures are brought under the umbrella of the city commission first.
Chamber Chairman Frank Beer says the Chamber wanted to conduct the study to ascertain whether or not the facility would draw in more business to the area. Beer pointed out the lack of appropriate facilities led to the loss of a bid to host the Kansas Sunflower Games. According to the briefing the loss of the event was potentially equal to around $900,000.
The discussion ultimately led to Mayor John Matta instructing city staff to gather information for a future discussion on the matter.
In other news from the meeting ATA is opening a new facility soon, and says signs for the fixed bus route system will be in place by July.
The city finance staff also unveiled a new valuation increase of around $9,000,000 over previous projections, and expect that to drive down mill levy rates. Staff also introduced several options which could help bring the mill levy down that included movement of some funding sources out of the general obligation fund.
