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Sumner M Johnson _6
SUMNER: Anyway, and they had a number of years left when Montgomery Ward leaves, too. And so, they thought they were all okay Well, he called in a panic after they’d killed this second go at an enlarged LID. “What can we do to reactivate it?” I said, “I don’t think we can do anything because it’s down the tube.” And it never did get reactivated to this day. But I contended that we needed to really look into a major off-street parking, but to compete with the Karcher Mall, you've got to compete with (inaudible).
KEN: Yeah, you do. And that’s been one of the major obstacles to the downtown renovation.
SUMNER: And of course, when I first got acquainted with you, we were working on that city hall committee, [00:01:00] Citizens Committee. There was about 64 of us. And remember the meeting up there in the old city hall chamber where we put together a final plan? I think you were there that night, not as a member of the committee but as an observer. And we had a vote, I think, 62 to two to go with, I forget which plan we were talking about, but it might have been this location right here. But I think it was Kenwood. And of course, the two that voted no were Frank Bevington and Bake Young. So, then Frank’s on the council and it goes to the council and gets pigeonholed.
KEN: I remember that.
SUMNER: So, they threw it back to us a couple of times. And that’s where, see, I was involved with the Financial Analysis Committee, [00:02:00] and I submitted it, and I didn’t think you’d ever even heard of it before, and you picked up on it, and we had quite an exchange of ideas and I was just amazed that you had grasped it the way you did, because most people didn’t know what we were talking about, but you had a complete grasp of it. But we tried. Didn’t get the job done. Anyway, the net result, we finally got this side here. At one time, we had a chance through the Ida-Ore to get an about 50 percent grant for a modest auditorium center, here, but couldn’t get city administration off dead center on that. Fortunately, now, we have a new administration that’s very [00:03:00] progressive. If Winston had been the mayor, then, why we’d have had an auditorium in the city, here. I guess that probably gives you about all the blarney you need from me.
KEN: That’s a good report. Could we maybe even keep the notes for when we transcribe the tape? Because there’ll be some names that are -- is that something you’d...
SUMNER: Then, I put down some of those old stores and stuff on here. I don't know whether I spelled them right.
END OF AUDIO FILE
SUMNER: Anyway, and they had a number of years left when Montgomery Ward leaves, too. And so, they thought they were all okay Well, he called in a panic after they’d killed this second go at an enlarged LID. “What can we do to reactivate it?” I said, “I don’t think we can do anything because it’s down the tube.” And it never did get reactivated to this day. But I contended that we needed to really look into a major off-street parking, but to compete with the Karcher Mall, you've got to compete with (inaudible).
KEN: Yeah, you do. And that’s been one of the major obstacles to the downtown renovation.
SUMNER: And of course, when I first got acquainted with you, we were working on that city hall committee, [00:01:00] Citizens Committee. There was about 64 of us. And remember the meeting up there in the old city hall chamber where we put together a final plan? I think you were there that night, not as a member of the committee but as an observer. And we had a vote, I think, 62 to two to go with, I forget which plan we were talking about, but it might have been this location right here. But I think it was Kenwood. And of course, the two that voted no were Frank Bevington and Bake Young. So, then Frank’s on the council and it goes to the council and gets pigeonholed.
KEN: I remember that.
SUMNER: So, they threw it back to us a couple of times. And that’s where, see, I was involved with the Financial Analysis Committee, [00:02:00] and I submitted it, and I didn’t think you’d ever even heard of it before, and you picked up on it, and we had quite an exchange of ideas and I was just amazed that you had grasped it the way you did, because most people didn’t know what we were talking about, but you had a complete grasp of it. But we tried. Didn’t get the job done. Anyway, the net result, we finally got this side here. At one time, we had a chance through the Ida-Ore to get an about 50 percent grant for a modest auditorium center, here, but couldn’t get city administration off dead center on that. Fortunately, now, we have a new administration that’s very [00:03:00] progressive. If Winston had been the mayor, then, why we’d have had an auditorium in the city, here. I guess that probably gives you about all the blarney you need from me.
KEN: That’s a good report. Could we maybe even keep the notes for when we transcribe the tape? Because there’ll be some names that are -- is that something you’d...
SUMNER: Then, I put down some of those old stores and stuff on here. I don't know whether I spelled them right.
END OF AUDIO FILE