It’s next to impossible to listen to Paul Matney make the case for whatever project on his radar and not feel some sense of buy-in.
I’ve known Matney for as long as I’ve lived in Amarillo. That’s more than 20 years. I have listened to his pitch for Amarillo College, which he led as president until he retired a year ago. His AC spiel was polished, passionate and on-point.
Matney has turned that passion now to a Nov. 3 non-binding referendum facing Amarillo voters. You’ve heard about it, yes?
It’s the multipurpose event venue, which is part of the three-pronged “catalyst project” that’s been developed for the city’s downtown business district.
Matney broke out of his chains today while speaking to the Rotary Club of Amarillo.
The MPEV includes the much-discussed “ballpark.” The ballot measure asks voters if they want the MPEV built as it’s been presented.
Matney’s view? Not just yes, but hell yes! (OK, he didn’t say it quite that way, but that was the message.)
It’s a $45 million project, combined with a parking garage. The city will issue revenue bonds to pay for the MPEV construction and will retire the debt with hotel occupancy tax revenue collected by visitors who come to Amarillo.
City and business leaders are breaking ground Friday on a $45 million convention hotel to be built downtown; the developer of the Embassy Suites is footing the bill for the hotel’s construction … and that, too, got Matney’s juices flowing today.
Matney believes in the MPEV and predicted that its construction will put Amarillo on the “baseball radar” for an organization looking to locate a team. Oh, but what’s wrong with the Potter County-owned ballpark at the fairgrounds? Matney didn’t say it precisely, but I’ll say it here: It’s a dump.
Matney did say that Potter County shouldn’t spend another nickel on improvements to that stadium. Amen to that, Mr. President.
Matney presented his brief remarks as someone “who was born here, educated here, lives here, worked in higher education here, has retired here, will die here and will be buried here.”
The MPEV, he said, could play host to a wide variety of events that could attract thousands of folks into the downtown district.
So, the campaign for and against the MPEV will continue. I’ve known Paul Matney to be a man of high integrity and honor.
The political organization that he has joined to support passage of the referendum could not have found a better spokesman for this worthy project.
As he noted in talking about Xcel Energy’s own plans to build a new office complex downtown and the company’s struggle to replace key employees who are reaching retirement age. “Xcel is struggling to find people to fill those spots,” Matney said, “so this is a quality-of-life issue.”
Melissa Dailey, the head of Downtown Amarillo Inc., had to walk the straight and narrow in her remarks to the Rotary Club about the MPEV. As a public employee, she is limited to speaking only about the facts. No campaigning allowed, right, Ms. Dailey?
That’s fine. She turned it over to Paul Matney who — as a “civilian” — is allowed to speak from the heart.
He did so today.