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Port interested in readerboard
Scott Lybbert and the Quincy Community Center board of directors heard what they wanted to hear from the Quincy Port District commissioners last month.
The board has been interested in erecting an electronic readerboard in front of the center to generate funds. At a port district meeting held Feb. 24, the commissioners told Lybbert and fellow community center board member Corallee Morgan that they were in favor of helping to fund the readerboard.
“I’m inclined to do something,” said port commissioner Brian Kuest. “I want to think about it and figure out what makes sense for us. I want to put some thought into how we can best leverage our position.”
Port commissioner president Curt Morris agreed.
“I think it’s worthwhile to put up a sign,” he said. “I’m willing to support it for an undisclosed amount at this particular time.”
Lybbert’s proposal to the commissioners called for the port to kick in $16,000 for the sign, with the City of Quincy contributing $24,000. (Lybbert said the community center board has estimated that a sign could cost anywhere between $32,000 and $40,000.)
“I think the city would say yes if you guys said you’d do it,” Lybbert told the commissioners. “Like you guys said earlier, the city should be the ones to step up and assume the brunt of the cost.”
The port commissioners didn’t agree to give the full $16,000 to the community center right away, however. They probably would prefer to make payments over a period of years, either to the city or some other entity.
“We could pay $4,000 a year for four years,” Morris said. “That would make it easier for our advertising budget, since this is basically advertising for us anyway.”
Lybbert said the sign would have up to 20 messages repeating on a continuous loop, and would focus on promoting area events. The city and port district would have the use of the sign as a payback of sorts, Lybbert said.
“If you guys help pay for the sign, you should have that as long as the sign lives and flashes,” he said. “You’d have a payback in 3 1/2 years if you had five messages on the sign for four years. You could use the board to promote things you’re doing at the golf course, for example, like your $10 Mondays.
“The city has so much to gain as well. Right now they’ve got, like, 10 recreational events going on they could promote.”
Lybbert said that despite some questioning he’s heard of the sign’s potential profitability, the sign indeed will generate money.
“If we can get one new nonprofit message and one new for-profit message a week, that would earn $11,700 a year,” he said. “That would be enough to take care of what we want to do at the community center. I think there would be plenty of sponsors, especially in the summer. I think this idea has a lot of potential.”
Morgan told the commissioners that the board is working on changing the center’s image, starting with the renovation and improvement project that’s currently under way at the center.
“One of the things we really want to do is make the community center a true community center,” she said. “Since we’re not making as much money as we’d like, we can’t let the basketball team, for example, use the center for its banquet. We want to put the community back into the community center. We want to open it back up and not charge as much money. But we have to make some money. We can’t nickel and dime it here or there.”
• The port commissioners voted to purchase a barbecue smoker from Gates True Value with the idea of providing barbecue food at Colockum Ridge Golf Course this year.
To give the commissioners and other port employees present at the meeting a taste, Dan Gates, owner of Gates True Value, smoked a large variety of chicken, ribs and pulled pork on one of his grills for them to sample.
After taking a small break in the middle of the meeting to sample Gates’ handiwork, the commissioners resolutely agreed to purchase the Traeger smoker for about $1,000.
“We’d be different from the other restaurants,” Morris said.
“Nobody around here really does barbecue, so we wouldn’t be stepping on anybody’s toes. It’s simple to set up, too. We could offer a variety of specials for lunch and dinner.”
• A public meeting was held to amend the port district’s comprehensive plan and industrial development district to include the port’s recent purchase of the ‘Helsley property,’ a 101-acre lot that the port recently purchased and wants to develop for future use.
“That’s a giant step forward,” Morris said after the resolutions were approved. “Now we can start working on that property.”
