Your Opinion: Revisit size, objective of conference center

Dear Editor:

Conference center planning is in the works. A facilitator has been hired. Proposals have been submitted. Public hearings have been scheduled.

Both proposals are too small. Both are below City Council requested size. Both are below the recommendations in a consultant's study.

I will draw the readers' attention to discussions several years ago. What was the purpose of building a convention center? The City of Jefferson has been losing potential conventions to locations with larger facilities. If we have larger convention center space the meeting dollars will be directed toward Jefferson City and not elsewhere.

A conference center is proposed. A convention center is needed. What is the difference? Size! Hospitality experts can provide the readers with square-foot guidelines.

How can we afford a larger facility? Eliminate the hotel. There are plenty of hotels in town. If there are not enough rooms, hoteliers will build more. Economic demand leads to construction.

How will we pay to operate the facility? Current proposals call for the hotel owner to be the operator. By eliminating the expense of having the city build a hotel we should have money left over.

The Parks and Recreation Department is preparing to build a 40,000-50,000 square foot building for about $6 million. I believe that this is well below the money planned for the city's hotel-conference center combination. Take the difference and put it toward operating expenses.

I admonish the City Council: If you can't build it big enough don't build it. Eliminating the hotel is a pathway toward an in-demand convention center which can transform our local economy.