ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604010053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Norfolk Botanical Gardens refused to pay a contractor for the garden's Christmas light show because the contractor allegedly helped set up a competing light show in Virginia Beach.
The competition caused revenues from the Norfolk show to plummet by $100,000, or about one-third, the garden claims.
Now the contractor, Mosca Design Inc. of Raleigh, N.C., is suing the Norfolk Botanical Garden Society for $92,065, the second of three payments it says is owed.
The society claims that by setting up the competing light show, Mosca voided its contract.
The light company has a different view.
``They owe us for the balance of that contract,'' said Mosca's attorney, William C. Bischoff.
The society's show involves 13 miles of lights and 150,000 blinking bulbs.
The society signed up Mosca in 1994 to design and build the attraction. The original contract calls for three annual installment payments of up to $81,666 each, depending on gate receipts, or a total of $245,000. Later, the garden asked that more lights be added, thus increasing its annual payment.
About 42,000 cars, carrying about 200,000 people, drove through the garden the first Christmas, paying about $7 each. Ticket sales were $294,000. The garden kept $60,000 in profits.
Then competition arrived.
Last year, Virginia Beach set up its own Christmas light show along the oceanfront boardwalk costing $750,000. The city hired Carpenter Decorating Co. of Hickory, N.C., to do the work.
Society officials say Carpenter Decoration and Mosca Design are one in the same, and their contract with Mosca prohibited the company from designing other light shows in the area. The society said ticket sales at the garden dropped to $187,000 last year.
LENGTH: Short : 45 linesby CNB