Capital campaign reaches initial milestone

Big news here. It only took them 4 months to raise 1/4 of what they need. That would mean with a similar rate of success they are a year from raising the whole eight fiddy. Factor in diminishing returns, and/or the well having been fully tapped now and, surprise surprise surprise they are years away from raising the money, let alone breaking ground. The incompetent leading the incoherent leading the delusional. "It takes a community", that's their motto. To what? Help no one? Ever? 15 years they've been at this. Here's some things that were done in less time;

Titanic 2 years

Aircraft carrier 4 years

Transcontinental railroad 6 years

State Capitol 8 years

Statue of Liberty 9 years

Panama Canal 11years

Mt Rushmore 14years

Giza Pyramid 20 years

The Titanic having met it's fate because of poor leadership as well, this abortion will also sink. Although the Giza pyramid took 20 there's no way this cluster will be built by then and they didn't have machines to help. Maybe aliens built the pyramid and will comeback and help this collection of studiers of studying studies because that's the only way it's going to get done.

Wishinonehand, you might be giving too much credit here assuming they have already raised $215,000 in 4 months. The fact that it says they WOULD pledge UP TO $215,000 tells me that they aren't anywhere close to $215,000 yet. It must be a secret how much money has been raised because I haven't seen anything. Normally with things like a United Way campaign you can at least look at a thermometer poster to show how close they are to the end goal. No such luck here eh?

Who is actually in charge of giving the go-a-head for this deal? County?? City?? Are they going to let them begin under-funded of the $850K?? Who is actually running this train?? Do the voters have anymore say??? Have there been any e-mails deleted?? Looks kind of similar.

REALLY??????? $850,000.00???? What has happened the monies raised over the past 15 years or so???

How many people are on the capital campaign committee? So they are meeting with representatives from the WECR Dist. Are they in some way not one and the same? How much of the $850K has been raised? IN THE BANK? Any type of stipulations on these matching funds? Do community commitments have to be in bank before this group of Wall Street Investment Bankers sign their checks? Come on please MH News ask some pertinent questions as to provide your community with some quality information.

Like I have said from the beginning, I will not contribute a dime until I have a grasp at where all of the past money has gone. Go to WECRD's website and look at their past few budgets, they are pulling in $450,000 to $500,000 per year but still need $850,000 for a $5 million dollar build? They also listed $2,000 worth of interest income last year. With a $4 million honey pot, they managed to earn $2,000 in a year? I get that you can't put $4 million into a high risk high reward investment, but even a no risk investment/savings product would have brought in WAY more than $2,000. So that either means that $4million was poorly handled, or they did invest aggressively but have WAY less than we even think they have. Even if they were only bringing in $350,000 per year over 15 years they would be at $5.2 million, PLUS whatever interest income they got for 15 years. It feels like this project has been strung out for so long because it is more of a part time project with a salary attached (long term plan) than an actual fund to be used to build something. If it has taken 15 years to save $4 million through mandated taxes without a choice, how long do you suppose it will take to raise $850,000 in voluntary funds? The required donations apparently wastes 4 years to raise $1 million (at $500,000 per year?). The WECRD seems to have been assigned company credit cards but have zero accountability when it comes to month end and justifying what was spent and where. For 15 years we just shrug our shoulders and say oh well... I guess they need more.

$.02

Very good points. You give me $3 Mil. to put away for a while, I promise you I will be back before the end of the day with minimum $120K per year return and all money federally insured. Lets just say they received $400K per year. That's $6 Mil. So its cost $166K per year to administer this project? Is there check book open for public review? Not their accounting of the money, but bank and credit card statements. It would be interesting to know how much money the architects have made on this project that has yet to be sent out to bid by contractors. And don't forget, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they paid $25k per acre for a piece of ground of which 50% is swamp land and un-usable. That brings the cost to $50k per acre. Oh yeah, and no water or sewer services on the property. You need to add the cost of these to the property. I agree with you in that I also do not see how $850K is going to be raised in accordance with the stipulations of our local Wall Street Investment Bankers. This is going to very interesting to watch play out. Amazing simply Amazing

I may have missed something. It says that the campaign has reached its first milestone, but did they ever say what that first milestone was? Do they ALREADY have $215,000 raised with the matching contributions taking it to $430,000? Or was the milestone simply an announcement that says WHEN they have $215,000 saved, that matching contributions will kick it up to $430,000? When I hear "milestone" I assume they have already achieved a goal, hopefully the milestone isn't just a promise of matching funds IF they can get to $215,000. Either way, I still go back to the fact that for a $5 million dollar build, they should have had adequate funding LONG AGO, and asking for another $850,000 after 15 years of "giving" is a huge black eye when you consider the massive red flags going on with all of the book keeping. Dragging the feet with a 15 year churn was GREAT for people being paid for feasibility studies, or architectural renderings, but steps backwards as far as what we thought the whole intent was in the first place.