THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210371
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CAMDEN LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
For the second time in two years, the Northeast Economic Development Commission hit the brakes and slowed to a stop Wednesday when a commission member sought money for a $29 million Lake Gaston hotel and golf course in Northampton County.
Jimmy R. Jenkins Jr., former chancellor of Elizabeth City State University and a founding member of the pump-priming commission, asked for $150,000 to help develop the recreation center near Henrico, N.C.
In 1994 the commission approved $150,000 for the Lake Gaston project but later rescinded the grant when the commission was told that some of the land where the hotel complex would be built is owned by the family of Grover Edwards, a commission member.
``Now we're asking this commission for $150,000 to help cover the estimated $450,000 in development costs,'' Jenkins told the commission on Wednesday.
Jenkins and Edwards were seated together when the commission met in the Camden County Senior Center. Edwards succeeded Jenkins last year as commission vice chairman.
Jenkins, who resigned as chancellor at ECSU last summer, is chairman and interim operating officer of the Lake Gaston Regional Development Association. He said the association already has received $100,000 in state money to help with the $450,000 start-up costs.
Rick Watson, the new director of the commission, said he had inspected the Lake Gaston property and found it well-suited for the hotel-golf course resort envisioned by Jenkins and Edwards.
But before the commissioners could vote yes-or-no on giving Jenkins and Edwards any new development money, Boyce Hudson, a commissioner from Washington, N.C., moved that the panel approve the Lake Gaston project ``in principle'' only and without any cash attached.
``I think we can go forward with that,'' said Jenkins. ``We know we'll have to raise at least $200,000 on our own in addition to outside help.''
The commission then voted to approve the ``principle'' of Jenkins' Lake Gaston plan and quickly moved on to other business.
With little debate, the commission decided to move the group's headquarters from Hertford to Edenton.
Chairman Jimmy Dixon, a Pasquotank County commissioner and business executive, said negotiations were continuing to lease Edenton's ``Old Ice House'' on the historic town's waterfront. The commission now makes its headquarters in relatively small offices over a Perquimans County bank in Hertford.
``They'll renovate the Edenton building for us,'' said Dixon, ``and we'll share offices with the North Carolina Department of Commerce.''
Dixon said the commission and the state commerce agency would split $1,200-a-month rent for the new quarters. The offices in Hertford cost $1,000 a month, he said.
Buck Suiter, the Ahoskie treasurer of the commission, reported that the panel had $1,838,396 in the bank as of March 20, 1996.
The commission has not been lavish in it's pump-priming expenditures and $266,185 of Suiter's total represented earned interest on commission money socked away in banks, the treasurer said.
One project that was not discussed was the Babe Ruth World Series for teen ballplayers that will be held in Dare County in August.
At a meeting several months ago, E. Ray Hollowell, a commission member from Manteo where the series will be played, suggested that the pump-primers contribute $200,000 to nationally televise the games as a tourist attraction.
The commission reacted favorably but told Hollowell that he wouldn't get the money until he produced a contract for the TV coverage. by CNB