
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994                   TAG: 9411160170
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

STADIUM PRICE TAG RUNS HIGH

The baseball stadium for the newly named Salem Avalanche likely will cost more than $1million more than the $5million Salem voters approved this summer.

After a bid for part of the construction was approved Monday, City Councilman Alex Brown said the project will cost more than projected - maybe as much as $6 million.

Voters this summer overwhelmingly approved building a new stadium for the minor-league baseball team - then the Buccaneers, now the Avalanche. The referendum asked voters if they approved building a stadium if it cost no more than $5million and did not require a tax increase.

The vote was an advisory referendum, however, and was not binding. City Council voted the week after the referendum to go ahead with the stadium, making it official. Brown said at the time that architects had assured council that the stadium would not cost more than $5million.

But the architectural firm, Kinsey Shane & Associates, has never designed a stadium before, and with contractors being rushed to finish it by spring, the cost grew.

City Council already has appropriated $4,181,000 for site work, rough grading and concrete work for the stands. Lights, seats, electrical and plumbing work, an elevator and equipment for the training rooms and clubhouses still must be paid for. Those bids will come in during the next few weeks, Assistant City Manager Forest Jones said.

Brown said the budget and finance committee realized Friday while looking at the bids that the cost would be more than voters approved.

"We decided there was no sense cutting corners, [so] go ahead and build something we can be proud of," Brown said. And the referendum was "such a resounding victory, if we had said $6million, they would have passed $6million."

The stadium construction was approved by 85 percent of voters.

Despite the cost overrun, no more than $5million worth of bonds will be sold to pay for the stadium. City Council voted Monday to sell $5million in general obligation bonds for the ballpark and another $5million for other projects, such as school improvements and firefighting equipment.

The rest of the stadium money will come from the undesignated balance fund - money left over from last year's budget - or from the city's reserves, Brown said.

Memo: ***CORRECTION***

by CNB