Steve Powell willed the convention center out of the ground. Come on. I do believe the voters of the City willed the convention center out of the ground when they voted to build it. This is typical of the CVB to overstate their importance. So let us once again revisit Steve Powell’s accomplishments the Mayor bragged on:
The Miniature Museum cost the taxpayers over $500,000 and is closed because nobody went to it.
The Goldenrod Showboat cost the taxpayers over $5,000,000 and is closed and was given away..
The Lewis and Clark Rendezvous was suppose to have one million people and had less than 100,000. There are rumors that the Foundation, headed by Powell and Venetia McIntyre, are in default to a number of the vendors. Keep in mind Powell rented a barge hotel, parking lots and buses to transport the predicted onslaught of people from The UMB (Riverport) parking lot to St. Charles. I am told the buses carried just under 1000 people that weekend. If you do the math, we could have paid less to have limos driving them.
To inflate the accomplishments of Powell is a disservice to all of us who actually have invested our own money in Main Street. You see, Powell never had to worry about making rent payments/mortgage payments. Powell really never had to worry about where his money was going to come from because the people of St.Charles graciously pay a tax on every meal they eat at a restaurant or fast food place to support the tourism effort. Powell, and a select few on South Main, believe they are entitled to spend that money as they please. For this reason, I believe Powell is gone. The City Council saw the abuse and started to place controls on Powell and he didn’t like it. A great example is Hartmann Design, Powell created a way that Hartmann would get any, and all, business from him.
I didn’t want to have to call Powell’s performance out, but when you have a less than truthful statement from the Mayor of the City someone has to set the record straight.
I am beginning to understand why this City has the problems it does. No one can tell the truth and if they lie enough, then it must be the truth. The biggest oversell of fact is Powell’s assertion that the Convention Center is a success. Thanks to a tip received today, I checked the web site for the Convention Center and found there are no, I repeat no events, scheduled for the next four months. Maybe we can get Powell to will people into the Convention Center. Hopefully he can do a better job than he did willing people to Main Street.
