A reader has made what I consider to be a reasonable, and doable, request:
Donna Morris died in 2014, and she stipulated that the $9M be used "specifically for the design, construction, and maintenance of a performing arts center to be located in Port Angeles, Washington,"
The gift was left to the Peninsula College Foundation to get this done.
Rather than carry out the gift's very expressed purpose, the Foundation members decided to work with The-Powers-That-Be to morph this into a "convention center." Maybe someone could look into who runs the Foundation and their connections?
Anyone? How about starting here?
http://pencol.edu/foundation/who-we-are
Donna Morris died in 2014, and she stipulated that the $9M be used "specifically for the design, construction, and maintenance of a performing arts center to be located in Port Angeles, Washington,"
The gift was left to the Peninsula College Foundation to get this done.
Rather than carry out the gift's very expressed purpose, the Foundation members decided to work with The-Powers-That-Be to morph this into a "convention center." Maybe someone could look into who runs the Foundation and their connections?
Anyone? How about starting here?
http://pencol.edu/foundation/who-we-are
Didn't you hear? They are going to install an underground tram-way from the new Elwha Casino to the Convention Center. It will go through a huge underground aquarium, part of the new Fiero presence adjacent to the fine arts center...
ReplyDeleteIt used to be we grew our own psychos here: bulldozer maniacs, parents branding their own kids, Our Town, our politicians. Now, with all these recent cases of fugitives being caught here, and people coming her to commit crimes and kill people, it seems like we've become a very twisted tourist destination. I guess all that earlier coverage of our local maniacs paid off. We finally found a way to promote this place, to all the wrong people. Great.
ReplyDeleteYou can't buy publicity like that. And yes, as you say, the dark PR seems to be bearing some bitter fruit...
DeleteSomehow, real and valid studies HAVE to be required before this is allowed to proceed. Studies that determine a convention center is viable, here.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually pretty diabolical. If this was a city project the people would have some say and recourse if the project went ahead. Instead, they formed a non-profit that can do whatever it wants as long as it follows their stated "mission". They steal this woman's gift by making a loophole in the wording of the will and then use the money as leverage to get more grants. All done out of the sight of the public, who have no recourse. It runs for a few years and then folds, just like Pen-Ply, and I bet somehow they arrange it so the taxpayers get left holding the bills.
DeleteHere is some info about convention centers.
ReplyDelete" The number of conventions and total number of people going to conventions has decreased since it peaked in the mid-1990s. The situation we have now is that of more cities are competing for fewer dollars."
It's a classic race to the bottom."
"The State pays for most of them." ( Hello! The Grant Whores rise to the occasion!)
"It’s not just that these projects are economic losers."
Or, from another article on the subject:
" Although Boston’s gleaming new $800 million convention center is set to open in a few months, so far it has booked only a handful of conventions. So dire is the facility’s outlook that it will need a $12–15 million annual public subsidy in its first few years of operation and may not reach its full booking potential for a decade, say Boston officials. Even that may be too optimistic, judging by what’s going on in Baltimore. There, a vastly expanded convention center that reopened in 1997 is finding it so hard to lure business that city officials are now searching for ways to make the facility more attractive, including spending millions in public money to build a subsidized hotel next door.
What is happening in Boston and Baltimore is not an anomaly but merely the latest chapter in what is turning out to be one of America’s biggest civic boondoggles. "
https://www.city-journal.org/html/convention-center-shell-game-12511.html
Yes! Convention Centers run in the red well over 90% of the time. Well-managed cities with other amenities and draws to offer use them as "loss leaders" in terms of bringing in groups. But again, these are places that are well-managed and have something else to offer. That is NOT a description of Port Angeles in any way. Not even if Pat Downie opens a petting zoo. There's no there there, other than promoting that you can "Come to Port Angeles and go to Victoria!"
DeleteThere is another tag line for Port Angeles. "Come to Port Angeles, and go to Victoria". Absolutely.
Deletethere is a huge difference between a performance arts center and a convention center.
DeleteWe do need a performing arts center -- and one downtown would be lovely. Using the high school auditorium (while fairly large) does NOT benefit the downtown merchants.
What we have here is a money grab by the same cast of characters. This crap needs to stop.
The lady's heirs should be notified if she has any living relatives. A good lawyer could probably get the gift overturned if they try to do other than what was ordered in her Will. I'm sure she has some family left somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThe personal representative of the estate is the person with legal authority to hire a lawyer and correct any misuses of the bequest.
DeleteThe probate case appears to still be pending, but no reported docket action in the past couple years. Which leaves the question of whether the estate will pay to enforce the terms of the bequest.
Adam Chamberlin is now saying you and Dale think he runs stop enablement and removed the posts on the website.
ReplyDeleteAdam Chamberlin is a coward, loser and convicted felon. Who cares what he thinks? But thanks for the update on the cowardly loser and felon, Adam Chamberlin. (Go, search engines, go!)
DeleteYou think that maybe someday, he and the other losers will figure out that the more they post, the more they ruin the reputation of the town, and themselves? As in, the search engines prioritize results based upon the popularity of the topic. The more they generate, the more the search engines will put it beforte anyone who types in Port Angeles or their names.
DeleteAs in, these losers are ruining their own lives, even online.
Do you mean losers and convicted felons like Adam Chamberlin?
DeleteOr do you mean convicted felons and losers like Adam Chamberlin?
This blog has gotten over 300 pageviews thus far today. Adam Chamberlin (convicted felon loser) is one of this blog's listed search terms.
Hi, Adam!
An Open Letter to Adam (the whiner) Chamberlin:
DeleteIt isn't DALE going after you on facebook. It isn't one of DALE's minions going after you. It's me. Me, a very pissed off middle-aged woman who feels that you need to get kicked in the shorts every time you even stand up.
Why?
Because you are a dirty little liar.
You are a bully.
You like to pick on others because it makes YOU feel like a big man 9which you are not).
And, you are the kind of person who should have learned by now that picking on people less fortunate than you generates a kind of KARMA, bad karma.
You never learned the golden rule. You never learned how to play nice. You (seem) to believe that what you say trumps your actions. Your actions are despicable. You whine and complain, and blame others. You are the worst kind of human on this earth.
And, YES, we NEED another newspaper in town. Yes we NEED to help the less fortunate. Yes we need to help, not hurt people. We will never help our community by making it US v.s. THEM.
So, I will -- do everything I can to thwart you. Why? Because it is what all moral people should do. Put idiots like you in their place.
And, guess what? I'm not the only one. The people who you think "admire you" are having great fun and glee at tormenting you. Why? Because it's a good taste of your medicine. Bitter pill, isn't it little boy?
I don't know Dale (other than reading his newspaper -- sometimes I agree with the articles, sometimes not).
I am part of your "inner circle" too...on those facebook pages. You've let me stay in since the original Our Town.
You are, sir, a complete moron. Grow up, and get your own house in order. Sit down, shut up, and act like a man.
Sincerely,
a non-fan, and your worst nightmare
Wow! Ouch! And thanks!
DeleteMany Kudos to the Open Letter at Adam Chamberlin author.Fantastic evaluation of such a piss-ant.
DeleteHey maybe if they made it a topless convention center! Really sleezy , with hot tubs on the roof! And all of the topless women and men (I intend for everyone to be offended) who hate their topless convention center jobs would have to pretend they loved their jobs and so it would be a performing arts center as well. I'm pretty sure there is an art to pretending you love to work topless.
ReplyDeleteIs Barb Frederick still looking for a job?
Delete"The Committee has not yet determined the cost of the project."
ReplyDeleteSounds like $9M doesn't go far these days.
https://pencol.edu/sites/default/files/Foundation/Foundation%20Documents/PC-Foundation_PAWC-FAQ.pdf
$9 million ? Look what Port Angeles got for $15 million, 10 years ago, when it built the stupid "Gateway" project.
DeleteAgain, the "Gateway Transportation Center" is another example of why doing a needs assessment is important. $15 million for a facility that sits empty virtually all the time. And maintenance? How much does it cost the taxpayers each year to keep the Gateway Center "open"?
$9 million for a performing arts center? With the Gateway fiasco as a viable comparison?
Who is kidding who?
And this becomes the important stature of this blog. Expose the perps and the issues BEFORE our money is stolen (again).
DeleteSunshine is all we have, because the perps are hellbent on skimming off the budget for each and every scam they devise. And don't forget there's the city payroll to meet - the new form of welfare!
I know it is pointless to.. point out... but why isn't the daily piece of shit paper that thinks it is all that and more, pointing out any of these self evident facts?
DeleteIt is beyond embarrassing that the so-called daily paper makes no effort to expose the city's problems, as in what I read here. What happened with the Gateway is now a matter of history, and objective fact. Why did the City buy the Niichols property, that it didn't need, and assume the toxics clean up liability? Why? Easy question. No follow up by the Predictably Docile and Compliant mouthpiece of the local powers-that-be.
The local piece of shit and absolute embarrassment for a community "daily" paper demonstrates it has absolutely no concern for Port Angeles with every issue it publishes. Really. Seriously. Look at the drivel it publishes without question or investigation, in every issue. The city and it's residents get ripped off with scam after scam, year after year, decade after decade, and the shitpaper just keeps printing the scamsters propaganda like it is the gospel, without question. And, it isn't as if it is not aware there are problems in Port Angeles...
Not like the local people have any choice in any of it.
They don't even have a decent choice at the ballot box. Here.
Two words; Leah Leach (editor)
Deleteisn't that spelled leech?
DeleteAs in Leech, as in that thing that attaches itself to a host, and sucks the blood out of it?
DeleteThe estate apparently already paid off the Foundation, and that gift is the bulk of the Foundation's total assets according to their IRS 990 forms.
ReplyDeleteThe Foundation documents say that their mission is to support students, mainly from scholarships. So when you look at the convention center proposal, how does Ms. Morris' gift fulfill the restriction that it only be used for an arts center? And why can't you get a simple answer from the trustees?
They are too busy spending the money!
Delete