Swampin' Steve

I had a correspondence with someone who had been emailing Huntington City Council regarding the ice equipment at BSSA; we both happen to have inside information regarding the previously-mentioned junior hockey prospects for Huntington, but his comes as the father of a midget hockey player who could potentially end up in Huntington if a team ends up there! He got a response from Steve Williams...

Thank you for taking time to reach out to me again about the proposed hockey improvements at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena in Huntington, WV.

I understand your passion for the sport and desire to return a professional hockey franchise to Huntington. I am concerned about borrowing $300,000, paying it back over 20 years and using it to support a venture that recently was not able to sustain itself for a decade. That being said, I have asked the Civic Arena management and the Mayor to determine the economic feasibility of spending money on "hockey infrastructure." If it can be determined that ice rink infrastructure creates a true value proposition by strategically positioning the Civic Arena as a destination point and establishes consistent entertainment opportunities not available in other arenas in the region...I will fully support the ice rink expenditures.

The difference in this conversation, in my estimation, is we are borrowing money. We must always be careful in how we spend public dollars. We must be even more diligent in our assessment when we are spending borrowed money.

As I said earlier, I understand and appreciate your desire for a hockey franchise. I will support the expenditure on "hockey infrastructure" if the economic feasibility can be demonstrated.

Thanks again for taking time to contact me.

The only difference between Steve's response to this hockey dad and his response to me is that mine included a single sentence acknowledging what he said to WSAZ about his skepticism of the hockey equipment provision. This tells me that he's resorting to form letters, meaning:

1. he's a hack, and
2. we're overloading them THAT MUCH.

Their contact pages are still down, by the way. Meantime, keep your ears peeled--Bill Sawyers will be on X106.3/107.1 sometime this week talking about HISCO with noted puck-head Erik.