Those words from Kingsport Alderman Ken Marsh, Jr. concerning the renovation of the V.O. Dobbins Community Center into offices for all of the city's non-profit agencies.
Alderman Marsh spoke to the Sons and Daughters of Douglass website in an exclusive unedited interview, after his views were published in the Kingsport Times-News on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008.
The alderman expressed concern in the newspaper that the city not be a public landlord for non-profit organizations that were paying rent to private landlords in their current locations.
The following is the unedited interview Alderman Marsh gave to us, immediately after the Times-News article (questions in upper case are from website editor Calvin Sneed, answers in lower case are Mr. Marsh's responses, and statements in parentheses are quotations already published in the newspaper previously):
EXPLAIN WHAT YOU MEAN BY "KINGSPORT GETTING INTO THE LANDLORD BUSINESS."
Each one of the agencies being planned for that building, either own the property they're in, or renting office space. And when you move 15 or 20 agencies out of the commercial side onto the public side, you create 15 or 20 vacancies, and we've got plenty of vacancies before we create any more. And there's no reason for the public sector to be competing with the private sector.
(In a previous Times-News article published on May 27th, Luke Bell of the Kingsport Red Cross chapter stated that “Donations are not as strong as we would like them to be to make a large commitment to move into the nonprofit center,” saying the agency is in need of a new facility due to space needs and the age of its current facility).
THE UNITED WAY IS OUT OF SPACE, THE RED CROSS, WHEN THEY WERE INVOLVED, WERE OUT OF SPACE, OTHER AGENCIES AROUND KINGSPORT, THEY WERE OUT OF SPACE..
I'm not sure what you mean, they were out of space, there is plenty of space for anybody that wants to rent space in Kingsport.
WHAT I MEAN IS, IN THEIR OWN BUILDINGS.. ARE YOU SUGGESTING THAT THEY LOOK
ELSEWHERE?
I don't think the United Way is out of space at all.. the Red Cross is happy to stay where they are.
THEY HAVE SAID IN THE PAST THAT THEY HAVE OUTGROWN THE SPACE WHERE THEY ARE ON WILCOX BOULEVARD, THAT'S BEEN QUOTED IN THE KINGSPORT TIMES-NEWS BEFORE,
AND THE DOUGLASS RENOVATIONS WOULD ALLOW THEM TO MOVE INTO MUCH MORE SPACE..
As you may know, the Red Cross has already backed out. The Red Cross has got a financial situation where they are, that any place they move, they increase their cost.
HAVE YOU HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT THEIR BEING BROKE, THAT THEY DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY TO MOVE?
Every non-profit borders on being broke, that's just the nature of the game.
THIS SITUATION (THE RED CROSS PULLING OUT, AND YOUR OWN CONCERNS ABOUT A NON-PROFIT CENTER FOR KINGSPORT) OBVIOUSLY OPENS THE DOOR FOR FURTHER DISCUSSION..
I was not there when Chris McCartt (assistant Kingsport city manager for development)
made his presentation to the BMA. I picked up the notes and minutes from the work session and asked questions about it.
DID SOMETHING SET OFF A RED FLAG TO YOU?
No, I was against this when this first came up a year ago. This is very consistant with my views. I don't have any problem with renovating the V.O. Dobbins Center, Jack Pierce and some others made a compelling case that it needs to be renovated and we do need to do it, and I'm all for that, and I voted to put the money in it to do it, but when we start going out and competing with our own taxpayers, that makes no sense at all in the public sector.
IF THE V.O. DOBBINS CENTER IS NOT DONE AS A NON-PROFIT CENTER, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IT RENOVATED TO BECOME?
Well, it was designed to be a community center, and to help continue the activities in it now, the Upper East Tennessee Human Development Agency, Headstart, Parks and Rec.. we've got a gymasium there that needs renovation, we've got an auditorium that could be used for much better purposes if we fix it up. The building is pretty poor shape, as most people know.
YOU MENTION THE OLD DOUGLASS AUDITORIUM.. IN THE CURRENT PLANS, THEY (THE
ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS) HAVE THAT AUDITORIUM BEING DEMOLISHED, BECAUSE THEY SAY, IT WOULD COST TOO MUCH TO FIX UP.. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
I don't have the plans for the facility in front of me, I knew something about it a year ago. The plans for the building, other than competing with our private enterprise people, I don't have any problem with at all.
SO YOU THINK THE OLD DOUGLASS AUDITORIUM POSSIBLY BE RENOVATED?
Well I don't know about the auditorium, but I'm very much in favor of renovating the facility into a situation that can be used by the community, and I'm not talking just about the Riverview Community, but the entire community.
BUT NOT AS A NON-PROFIT CENTER..
Anything like gymnasiums and schools, are non-profit centers, in that sense. That's where you play your intermural basketball games and your badminton and indoor, winter-kind of activities through the Recreation Department and groups like sports organizations, the A-A-U uses facilities like that all over the area each year. The Kingsport Visitors and Convention Bureau benefits from those sorts of things and bring a lot of people into Kingsport who spend money in our restaurants, our motels
and hotels, and bring a lot of economic activity into our community.
SO TO MAKE SURE I UNDERSTAND CORRECTLY.. YOU'VE NOT BEEN FOR RENOVATING V.O. DOBBINS INTO A NON-PROFIT CENTER FROM THE START..
That's correct. This is not something new.
HOW DO YOU GET THAT MESSAGE ACROSS? HOW DO YOU CONVINCE THE OTHER ALDERMEN AND THE CITY FROM THAT IDEA?
Well you know.. we have a seven-person BMA and the majority rules, and you know, the majority does a number of things that I don't believe are the appropriate things to do. I simply vote my conscience and what I think is representing the people of Kingsport in the best manner, and everybody else there, I assume is doing the same thing and democracy works on the basis of majority rule.
WHAT WOULD YOU TELL THE CITIZENS OF RIVERVIEW, SOUTH CENTRAL KINGSPORT WHO'VE BEEN EXPECTING THE RENOVATIONS TO V.O. DOBBINS AS A NON-PROFIT CENTER?
The message there is, I don't think it means a thing to an individual citizen who lives next door to the building.. actually, it just brings them traffic and congestion. The renovation of the building itself brings them a facility that can used across the street or across the town.
DO YOU THINK THE ISSUE WILL DIE DOWN, WILL YOUR CONCERNS PROMPT FURTHER DISCUSSION?
It probably will cause some additional discussion, but.. it's probably going to go forward, just as it's planned. I have no illusions that it's going to make a 180-degree turn. But it makes no sense to push and spend money in an effort on economic development, and then turn around and wipe out the local economic development that's already there.
HAS KINGSPORT ALWAYS HAD A PROBLEM WITH OPEN OFFICE SPACE, WHAT WITH THE QUEBECOR BUILDING NOW OPEN UP, AND OTHER SPACE?
You know, before 1990, the industrial base of Kingsport was humming. We've lost over 15,000 manufacturing jobs in the last 20 years. That's in a town of 44,000 people, and the fact that we have it cratered, is a monument to the resiliency of our people that we haven't gone into a deep depression.
BUT WE STILL HAVE THAT OPEN SPACE THAT YOU SPOKE OF, THAT NOBODY'S OCCUPYING RIGHT NOW.
Absolutely.. we've got the biggest building in Kingsport, the Borden Mills property and it's empty. Quebecor, which the city now owns, is empty. The industrial base of the United States and Kingsport, too are under great pressure.
DO YOU HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE FOR NON-PROFITS IF THEY WANTED TO MOVE INTO THEIR OWN SPACE UNDER ONE ROOF, OTHER THAN THE V.O. DOBBINS CENTER?
That's basically a question of the non-profits' financial situation and what they think their needs are, what their services are, and how much they think they can afford to spend internally, before they offer a service. Rent's an internal expense. If they can raise the money and get into a building that the city does not own and operate, then more power to them, but why should every citizen in Kingsport subsidize them?
