The Inspector Clousseau of College Hockey Journalism falls out of a tree and lands on his feet... I was finally able to track down someone who could provide the _Lowell Sun_ article about the new UML rink that I babbled about several days ago. I just got the FAX, so here goes... (Reprinted without permission) Manager: City can afford $15M to fund new arena By John Novack Sun Staff LOWELL- City Manager Richard Johnson, armed with a financial analysis, says the city can afford to borrow up to $15 million to help pay for the $45 million sports-entertainment complex. The city can assume the new debt partly because the ongoing repayments on the $131 million public school construction project will drop steadily starting in the year 2002, Johnson said in a 10-year projection of the city's debt service. Also, the manager said an arena will increase downtown retail operations, the tourism industry and the links between the downtown and the college community. John is hoping that replacing generalized promises by city and buisness leaders with hard numbers will win over critics who say the city simply cannot afford the arena. Still, Lowell buisnessman John Zagarella is pressing his case to get an advisory question on the November election ballot asking if voters want the city to borrow $15 million for the project. The UMass Board of Trustees are asking that city officials decide by May 1 whether to support the project, since the university had agreed to delay its original plans to build a smaller on-campus arena to allow Lowell to investigate a joint enterprise for a larger facility. The City Council is expected to vote on a resolution to authorize Johnson to proceed with the project. The manager urged the City Council's Economic Development and Downtown Subcommittee last night to back the resolution. He said it would prompt state Rep. John Cox, D-Lowell, to file legislation that would set the framework for the project -- a 6,000-to-8,000 seat arena for the city and University of Massachusetts at Lowell, a practice ice rink and a student recreational center. Plans unveiled in February call for UMass-Lowell, the state, and the city to contribute a maximum of $15 million each to the project. Johnson urged councilors to move quickly, since Cox hopes to include the request for a $15 million grant in the state budget, which will be debated in coming weeks on Beacon Hill. But Cox, Johnson said, needs some concrete commitment from City Hall, like a resolution. Cox plans to file two bills, one asking for the funding, the other to create an arena authority to oversee the project. Proponents say the complex could open within two years. The arena and practice rink would be located off the downtown, near Post Office Square, while the recreational facility would be on the North Campus near Aiken Avenue. Johnson's financial analysis showed that repaying the arena debt over the next decade would cost a low of $600,000 and a high, in fiscal year 1997, of $1,680,000. The annual cost would slide down in the following years toward $1.3 million. The projected combined debt service -- the arena costs, plus the borrowing already assumed by the city -- would range between $6 million and nearly $9.6 million a year. Currently, the city spends about $8 million a year to pay down its capital debt. The city already is planning to bond $50 million over the next 18 months, mostly for the ongoing public school replacement project. Councilors debated the city's current finances, its future borrowing commitments, and the future of the city itself during the two-hour meeting at City Hall. Matthew Donahue, chairman of the council subcommittee, turned the question of affordability on its ear by asking the impact on the city if it opts out of the project: "What happens to the city if we do nothing?" ***************************************************** ,-******-, * Dave Hendrickson "Robo" [log in to unmask] * *' ## '* * A Hockey Polygamist and Get-A-Lifer * *## ___##___ ##* * GO BROONS!!! Go Red Wings!! Go LA Kings! * * ##| ___ \## * * GO UMASS-LOWELL!!! Go Maine!! Go BU! * * | |___) | * * --------------------------------------------------* *######| ___ <######* * Although I can't remember ever having an original * * | |___) | * * thought, and am certainly parroting someone who * * ##|________/## * * actually has a brain, these opinions are mine, * *## ## ##* * not Hewlett-Packard's. * *, ## ,* ***************************************************** '-*******-'