At the last Town Council meeting, Town Manager Lance Terpenny announced the long awaited contract with Virginia Tech to support the Aquatic Center would be signed within the month. What a marathon event getting this piece of paper finalized has been for the Town Council.
Since the first mention of an Aquatic Center in the 2002 Town Council Minutes, there have been multiple discussions by Town Council. As of June 20th, 2006, the Town was waiting for the contract presented to Virginia Tech by Mr. Terpenny to be approved and signed. The Town has been operating under a verbal understanding with Virginia Tech since that time. Per the minutes of Town Council Meetings, July 18, 2006 confirmed this verbal contract with Virginia Tech to provide financial support.
Unfortunately, the minutes are fairly vague as to the who, what, when, where, and why of the money coming from Tech. A June 19, 2007 entry makes note of at $5,000,000.00 commitment by Virginia Tech. May 1, 2007 entry notes Virginia Tech would space the payments out over a 20 year period.
I have just finished updating the Aquatic History based on the Town Council Meeting Minutes file on the website. It is now current through August 5, 2008. You might want to take a look at some of the newer entries if you've read the original, or read the original if you've never seen it before.
Anyway, it looks like that $5 million needed to keep life in the Aquatic Center might be just around the corner. In these harsh economic times, that is a minor miracle at the least. If you happen to look through the minutes and find something that my search missed, please let me know so I can fix it. Thanks for your help!
To see the Aquatic Center History, simply go to any of the pages of the
Citizen's Information website and click on the
History of the Aquatic Center link in the left hand column