The Martin Firm - selected case information

LEDGER-ENQUIRER

Editorials

Friday, December 20, 1996

Thanks, Mayor Martin

Why build a civic center? Nobody’s going to go to it, right?
   Wrong.
   Why develop the Riverwalk? People won’t use it, right?
   Wrong.
   Why build softball fields on the South Commons? After all, as soon as the Olympics are over they will be abandoned. Right?
   Wrong.
   Wrong on all counts.
   As was made clear by reporter Eileen Zaffiro’s article in Thursday’s Ledger-Enquirer about the Georgia Baptist Association’s plans to hold its convention here in 1998, Columbus is already getting a big payoff from its investment in infrastructure and capital improvements, much of it made possible by the one cent sales tax voters adopted here in 1993. Upward of 10,000 Baptists are expected to attend the convention, which will be held in the Columbus Civic Center. They will spend an estimated $8.3 million during their stay.
   More to the point, without the Civic Center and other improvements, Ithey would not have come. Says Brenda Price, executive director of the

Columbus Convention & Visitors Bureau:
   "Without the Civic Center we never would have been able to bid for this convention. They told us not even to bother talking to them until we had the floor plan of our Civic Center."
   The annual gathering of Georgia Baptists will be the largest convention ever held in Columbus, but other events of equal or nearly equal size are on the boards for 1997 and 1998. Among these are the Men’s Bowling Association Tournament, which will bring in 5,000 outsiders In 1997, and the U.S. Southern Regional Youth Soccer championships, set for 1998 and expected to draw 10,000 visitors. The recently concluded and highly successful Franklin Graham Crusade made extensive use of the Civic Center and would not have been possible without it.
   The message is that intelligent investment in public improvements has a payoff if we are patient and don’t expect miracles.
   And isn’t it about time this city said a belated thank you to former Mayor Frank Martin, whose vision and determination made so much of our growth and improvement possible?
   Right.