“Winston takes good, like a cigarette should.’’


“See the USA in your Chevrolet.’’


I’m showing my age with those ads, but that also shows, many years later, how effective those repetitive ads were.


Which brings me (surprise) to two county commissioners, Molly Henderson and Dick Shellenberger, who say the same things over and over about the convention center/hotel project they hope to destroy.


No. 1: The project puts the taxpayers at high risk.


No. 2: The project has changed so much that it’s not the same project they once supported.


I must give the two (or an adviser) credit, especially for the first item. Tell taxpayers they might have to pay for something, and you’ve reduced a complex issue to a simple one.


But how much risk is the taxpayer being asked to take on?


Up to $60 million, Mrs. Henderson is telling people.


All of that, she claims, from the $20 million that the county agreed to guarantee for the project.


Mrs. Henderson either isn’t very good at math, or she has been misinformed.


If — the big “if’’ — the project were to be built and turn out to be a huge disaster, the taxpayers would be on the hook for $1.3 million a year for 32 years, which comes to just more than $40 million.


Now, $40 million is nothing to sneeze at, if, “big if,’’ this project tanks. No conventions, no guests. Short of a huge volcano erupting in Pequea Township, that is not going to happen.


The worst-case scenario would cost each person in the county $2.46 a year, each person in the city $24.44 per year.


As for the project changing: It certainly has, at the request of businesses and the public, which demanded a first-class hotel and a bigger exhibit hall. But little change has happened since December 2003, when the commissioners unconditionally guaranteed the bond.


The big change is more than $16 million in total costs, thanks in part to the sue-and-delay tactics of the commissioners, hoteliers and naysayers.


This is called raising fears and doubts. It’s also called playing fast and loose with the facts.


Skip the gag


I can’t agree with a part of the injunction sought in the lawsuit filed by the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority. That lawsuit and one filed by Penn Square Partners and the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Lancaster seek to counter the threats made against the room tax and bond issue by Mr. Shellenberger and Mrs. Henderson.


Those bringing the lawsuits believe the commissioners’ actions have had a “chilling effect’’ in keeping contractors from bidding on the project.


The authority’s lawsuit asks that the two stop “communicating an intent to” take action on the bond issue and room tax.


Mrs. Henderson and Mr. Shellenberger have been misinformation machines, but as a newspaper, we have railed editorially against gag orders.


To gag the two commissioners is just plain wrong, no matter how wrong they are.






Fade to gray


Ten-year-old daughter Abigail and a friend were going through family pictures when the friend spotted an old photo of me.


Friend: “Why was his hair dark?’’


Abigail: “I guess he didn’t wash it that day.’’


__


Marv Adams invites your questions. You can send them by e-mail to madams@lnpnews.com or mail to: Sunday News, Box 1328, Lancaster, Pa. 17608-1328.
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