3A • Daily Corinthian
Local/Region
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Trade Mart must move on without upgrades
Today in history
BY TED CARTER Mississippi Business Journal
1766: Britain repeals the Stamp Act. 1776: British forces evacuate from Boston to Nova Scotia. 1799: Napoleon Bonaparte and his army reach Mediterranean seaport of St. Jean d’Acra, only to find British warships ready to break his siege of the town. 1868: The first postage stamp canceling machine patent is issued. 1884: John Joseph Montgomery makes the first glider flight in Otay, Calif. 1886: Twenty African Americans are killed in the Carrollton Massacre in Mississippi. 1891: The British steamer Utopia sinks off the coast of Gibraltar. 1905: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, marries Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York. 1910: The Camp Fire Girls are founded in Lake Sebago, Maine. 1914: Russia increases the number of active duty military from 460,000 to 1,700,000. 1924: Four Douglas army aircraft leave Los Angeles for an around the world flight. 1930: Mob boss Al Capone is released from jail. 1942: The Nazis begin deporting Jews to the Belsen camp. 1944: The U.S. Eighth Air Force bombs Vienna. 1959: The Dalai Lama flees Tibet and goes to India. 1961: The United States increases military aid and technicians to Laos. 1962: The Soviet Union asks the United States to pull out of South Vietnam. 1966: A U.S. submarine locates a missing H-bomb in the Mediterranean. 1970: The Army charges 14 officers with suppression of facts in the My Lai massacre case. 1972: Nixon asks Congress to halt busing in order to achieve desegregation. 1973: Twenty are killed in Cambodia when a bomb goes off that was meant for the Cambodian President Lon Nol. 1973: First POWs are released from the “Hanoi Hilton” in Hanoi, North Vietnam. 1985: President Ronald Reagan agrees to a joint study with Canada on acid rain. 1992: White South Africans approve constitutional reforms giving legal equality to blacks.
Born on March 17 1846: Kate Greenway, painter and illustrator (Mother Goose). 1902: Bobby Jones, American golfer. 1919: Nat “King” Cole, jazz pianist and singer.
JACKSON — Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith sees Jackson’s best hope for becoming a crossroads for large-scale exhibitions, professional entertainment and music concerts resting within the confines of the 51-year-old Mississippi Coliseum. To that end, she is lobbying legislators for around $40 million to overhaul the building. She had initially planned to seek $30 million for renovations of both the Coliseum and neighboring Trade Mart. Now her efforts are centered entirely on the Coliseum, HydeSmith said, though she emphasized she will seek help for the aging Trade Mart after securing money for the Coliseum revamp. “We just can’t do everything at the same time,” she said, “but that definitely is part two.” The choice is either making a go of the Coliseum as a viable venue or letting it continue to deteriorate, she said. “There are lots of challenges in that building,” she said. Smith, a Republican who served more than a decade in the state Senate before elected to her statewide post in 2011, must overcome any reservations Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, the Senate’s fiscal gatekeeper, may have. Reeves has he would be hesitant to include the renovation money in a legislative general fund bond bill. Reeves said he would have to be convinced the allocation covers a “priority” need. “The Senate and House are only beginning to talk about which projects to include in a bond bill,” he said recently in an email. “We will review requests and finalize a bill by the end of the session. However, the Legislature needs to pass a reasonable, rational bond package that pays for priority needs.”
State Fairgrounds, will have to wait at least several more years for a renovation. It is one of the state’s busiest exhibition venues. Billy Orr, State Fairgrounds director, and his deputy, Jake Hutchins, are keeping the Trade Mart’s 67,000 square feet of open space booked by pitching its central location, ample parking and low costs. “We’re right on the interstate near two interchanges,” Orr said. “We’ve got plenty of parking. It’s probably the safest place (among Jackson’s exhibition and meeting venues) because of its location. I think, though, the big reason is the cost per square foot.” In setting his rental fees, Orr is mainly concerned about covering the cost of keeping the place running. The goal, he said, is to “make our budget every year and pay our utility fees and salaries” On the booking side, Orr said on a scale of 1 to 10, “I’d give it a solid 8. It’s been good. We stay pretty full.” The opening of the more than 300,000-square-foot Jackson Convention Center Complex slightly more than three years ago has made no detectable dent in Trade Mart bookings, according to Orr. While the Convention Center complex has a new, modern structure with attractive features such as carpeting, clean and spacious restrooms and escalators, it can’t accommodate the large events staged at the Trade Mart each year, chief among them the Jackson Junior League’s Mistletoe Marketplace.
move forward in a transparent manner, in which we will seek to engage and receive input from all interested parties.” Before the meeting, about 50 people against fracking held a rally across the street from the state Capitol. “We should not be allowing fracking in the state of Tennessee until we are absolutely certain that we have regulations ... in place that are going to guarantee the protection of water quality,” said Scott Banbury, one of the organizers. Environmentalists also argue that preservation of the forest tract in question is critical because it is one of the few mature forests still intact in the state’s Cumberland Mountains region. Gov. Bill Haslam is supportive of the university’s proposal. Shale formations undergird a wide swath of Appalachia. Hydraulic fracturing has touched off a boom, making enormous reserves of natural gas accessible where previous methods could not. Natural gas is extracted using large volumes of water, plus sand and chemicals, injected deep underground to break rock apart, freeing the gas. But environmentalists say the fluids could pollute water sources and methane leaks could cause air pollution. “There are questions surrounding natural gas extrac-
tion and we have the facilities, and we have the faculty, so have obligation to investigate in an unbiased, scientific way to provide those answers,” said Dr. Bill Brown, dean for research and director of the University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station. Other universities that have studied fracking have faced criticism about their scientific findings after it became known that researchers had ties to the energy industry. The University of Texas at Austin recently said it would appoint outside experts to review that school’s Energy Institute, which issued a report on environmental effects from gas without disclosing that the lead researcher was also being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by an energy company. And in May, a report from New York’s University at Buffalo generated similar controversy because of a researcher’s ties to the gas industry. Brown said the faculty who would work on the Tennessee project would be screened for outside relationships with industry contacts. He said other funding sources, such as federal or state grants, would be sought. He also rejected the suggestion that possible involvement by an energy company in the project
would affect research findings. “We need to get past this notion that if the university works with an industry, that somehow we are compromised or tainted,” Brown said. “Ultimately, many of the technologies that our faculty develops are going to be delivered to the market through the industry.” Parker said the university has attempted to push this proposal through the approval process without getting an independent appraisal of property value or the natural gas below ground. She also said there hasn’t been enough time to get details about the project. Pittsburgh-based Consol Energy Inc. hired Bryan Kaegi, a fundraiser for Haslam and other prominent Tennessee Republicans, to help shepherd the proposal through the approval process. Kaegi, who has not registered as a lobbyist, said in the correspondence with school officials that he had met with the governor and environmental officials to make the case for the program. Kaegi did not return messages seeking comment. Brown said if the subcommittee approves the university’s request to seek bids, they will have to evaluate those and go back to the State Building Commission for final approval.
Jake Hutchins State Fairgrounds deputy director
FRACKING CONTINUED FROM 2A
“We have not been able to find any instances of a university drilling on their land and funding their research with revenues from the drilling activities,” Parker said. Without an appraisal, it was unclear how much revenue such drilling could yield, though some said it could be in the range of millions of dollars annually. The university wants state permission to allow an outside company to drill on about 8,000 acres of mature woodlands it maintains as an outdoor laboratory in the Cumberland Plateau — all while performing research on the effects on water quality, air quality and ground impacts. University officials argue that because the property is stateowned, they can maintain control over the drilling project and provide independent scientific results in an area of the industry where many environmental questions remain. On Friday, the university presented its proposal to a subcommittee of the State Building Commission, which voted unanimously to allow the university to seek bids from companies. “Our intention is sciencebased investigation,” said Larry Arrington, chancellor of the UT Institute of Agriculture. “We will
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Hyde-Smith said she is willing to do the project in phases if the funding can’t be provided all at once. “However the Legislature wants to do it; we’re just asking for the funding,” she said. An improvement study by Jackson architectural firm Wier+Boerner proposes all new permanent seating, a new stage, sound system, lighting system, new dressing rooms, new restrooms, four new elevators and an escalator. Audience seating would increase by 500 and additional space would be provided in the club level for another 300 folding chairs. Hyde-Smith said she expects the renovations would take 18 months but thinks the actual shutdown of the Coliseum could be limited to the 12 months between the Dixie National Rodeo events at the facility. Her plan would be to start the work just after the next year’s rodeo in mid-February and finish most of the project in time to host the rodeo the following February. Wier+Boerner envision a new color scheme throughout with the upgraded finishes as well as six new private suites with balconies. The private suites would be served by private corridors. Hyde-Smith said once the multi-million dollar improvements are completed she would put naming rights to the Coliseum on the market. “The rights will be worth a lot more on a renovated building than they are right now,” she said. The Mississippi Trade Mart, long the workhorse venue of the
“The Convention Center doesn’t have the parking nor the square footage,” said Hutchins, chief booker of events at both the Trade Mart and Coliseum. The Mistletoe extravaganza is the Trade Mart’s largest event of the year and shows no signs of slowing its annual growth. “It’s bringing people from everywhere,” Hutchins said. “We have to put tents outside. It’s something to see.” Other major events for Trade Mart use each year are the Wildlife Extravaganza and Farris Brothers Hardware & Sporting Goods Show. The Trade also has hosted the Mississippi Business Journal’s annual Business & Technology Expo and will do so again on April 4. The Trade Mart hosts gun shows regularly as well as car shows, craft shows, bridal shows, legislative events and gatherings for groups. Event organizers such as the Junior League tell Fairgrounds officials they want the Trade Mart’s interior modernized and more restrooms, Hutchins said. Hutchins said the renovations can’t start soon enough. “The Trade Mart has been run and run and then run some more,” he said. When the money is there, Hutchins has a priority list of improvements for the Trade Mart. “The Trade Mart has roof leaks. We need to get the air conditioning units off the roof,” he said. Overall, it needs “a complete face lift, including a bigger foyer on the front,” he said. For now, Hutchins will go on booking and waiting for the day he has a fixed-up venue to sell. “The Trade Mart is a Grand Old Lady,” he said. “She just needs a facelift.” ——— Information from: Mississippi Business Journal, http:// www.msbusiness.com.
“The Trade Mart is a Grand Old Lady. She just needs a facelift.”
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