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Friends pushing the council using singing kids, attorney’s opinion
Friends of the Auditorium continue to pound away at the Bowie City Council using singing children and addressing the question of illegality in using hotel/motel tax monies for restoration of the 1927 facility.
At its June 3 meeting, Councilor Laura Sproles said the use of the tax money for “historic preservation,” when nothing has actually been done to the building, which would constitute illegal use of the funds. Sproles chairs the city’s hotel tax committee.
Her statement raised the anger of the audience as they exclaimed it is legal. Back in 1997, three percent of the tax was set aside by the council for the restoration project.
In January of this year, the council demanded to know the status of the project and gave the Friends until November to return with some concrete evidence of financial support through grants or donations. Estimated cost to restore the building is between $4.5 and $5 million.
During public comments Tuesday night, Jim Graham, member of the Friends, read a letter from Bowie attorney Brandon Earp, whom the group had asked to write a letter to the city with his opinion on the legality of using the hotel occupancy tax for the ongoing restoration efforts of the auditorium. Earp, a former Bowie mayor and councilor, said while he provided his opinion the “relative lack of legal authority for the questions of fact that seem to be of paramount importance in considering this matter.”
Read the full story in the weekend News.
Get ready for more hot and mostly dry weather conditions this week! Outside of some very low rain/storm chances late this afternoon (and maybe tomorrow afternoon), the heat will be the main story for us! We’re almost there…fall is coming at some point!
A few years ago, if someone had suggested that I would be brewing tea from orange peels, fig leaves, and the assortment of wild plants flourishing in my yard, I would have giggled in disbelief. My perception of tea was limited to the neatly packaged bags sold at the store, each little bag a promise of convenience.
I still vividly recall a few memorable trips to Great Britain, where I savored the robust flavor of a PG Tips tea bag—moments like that felt exquisitely sophisticated to me! The British, with their ritual approach and passion for creating the perfect cuppa, truly have mastered the art of tea.
Read the full On The Table column in your Thursday Bowie News.
We are all familiar with the term surprise lilies. This name is mostly attributed to members of the Lycoris genus.
In the south the red Lycoris radiata and yellow Lycoris aurea are two of the most treasured surprise lilies.
We are approaching their season of bloom. If you aren’t familiar with the term surprise lily the descriptor is common as we forget about them, including where they were planted but suddenly as school approaches they begin to bloom in glorious displays.
Read the full Garden Guy column in your Thursday Bowie News.
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