Evansville's City Council was told Monday night that the Ford Center's financial loss in its first full year of operation is projected to be $300,000, and next year's expected loss is $341,000.
The Downtown arena's performance came up during a lengthy final review of the city's 2013 budget, which received passage in a 6-3 vote. Dan Adams, D-At Large,Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley, D-3rd Ward, and Al Lindsey, D-6th Ward, voted against the city's budget.
VenuWorks Evansville Executive Director Scott Schoenike said the arena will continue to watch expenses in 2013 and will have a better idea of what to expect after this year's debut.
"As with any good business, we'll have to go though line item by line item and continue to trim down," said Schoenike, adding arena management continues to work with promoters on entertainment acts.
The Ford Center's debt service next year is to be paid from $3.4 million in riverboat funds, $3.4 million from Downtown Tax Increment Financing and $1.2 million in food and beverage taxes.
The final version of Evansville's 2013 budget largely mirrored the proposal given to City Council during the summer by Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, although some additional cuts made by the council pushed its projected surplus to about $5 million.
Much of the council's last budget discussion Monday was about heavy-duty washers and dryers for use by the Evansville Fire Department. The machines are said to be able to remove cancer-causing substances from uniforms.
The city's original budget included only enough funding to buy machines for half of the department's stations. The revised budget buys them for all stations, using money from the rainy day fund to make up the difference.
City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr. said the total cost will be about $155,000.
Larry Zuber, president of Evansville Professional Firefighters Local 357, told the Council he was diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 47. He said he can't prove that substances on his fire uniform caused it, but he also couldn't disprove it, and he argued that funding for machines at all stations be included.
"I don't believe the health and safety of my members is negotiable," said Zuber.
Adams, a retired physician, had pushed for the City Council to include funding for the machines. He thanked his colleagues for doing so but said he said he still had too many problems with the city budget to vote in favor of it.
It was the second straight year Adams opposed final passage of the city budget. He said he did so because not all of the city's safety departments have approved contracts and because of concerns about "ambiguity."
Adams said the city this year improved transparency in its budget process, "but we're not there yet."
Brinkerhoff-Riley and Lindsey, who are both first-year City Council members, had joined Adams in earlier meetings expressing concern about the amount of raises a few city employees received in the budget.
...
