Who will control the civic auditorium?

The Governance Board that sets the policies and procedures for this new civic auditorium consist of seven organizations (a majority from Bowie): the BOWIE City Manager, the BOWIE City Arts Committee, the BOWIE Regional Arts Vision Association, the Greater BOWIE Chamber of Commerce, the Prince George's Public School System, the BOWIE High School Principal and the M-NCPPC (Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission).

Why didn't the City of Bowie purchase the land?

For a standalone arts facility, the City could have purchased a prime piece of real estate on BOWIE' s Main Street, developed the utility and building infrastructure, and graded and provided parking for 500+ cars, at an estimated cost for the site/improvements of over $2.5 million dollars. But since this was provided by the County School System as part of their contribution, why should anyone complain?

But the City is not paying for ALL the construction costs?

We are asking the City to contribute in total only 1/6th the costs of a comparable stand-alone arts facility, less than was paid for either the new Bowie Gym or the new Senior Center. Plus, the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts will serve all segments of the population weekdays, nights, and weekends, with an attendance projected at over 55,000 annually.

Will the City be "stuck" paying for ALL the operating costs?

NO. The County School System has included over $300,000 per year to cover two-thirds of the cost of staffing, maintaining, and operating the center, which is the amount typically allocated to the other high school auditoriums in the county. However, the City has insisted, since 1995, that this project be more than just a high school auditorium, but rather a Civic Center for the Performing Arts, providing greater service to the whole community. We are thankful that the City Council has agreed to provide their share,
one-sixth of the operating costs ($6,700/month) to help accomplish this goal. (The other one-sixth is planned to be provided by M-NCPPC.)

Where is the construction money coming from?

The City of BOWIE was the first to provide funding six years ago with $1 million towards a project that was then envisioned as requiring 5 to 10 million dollars to construct.

Funding pledged or received to date comes from: the State - $4.8 million, the City of Bowie - $3.35 million, Prince George’s County/M-NCPPC - $1.716 million, private donations - $600,000, and Federal - $375,000, totaling over $10.8 million. If final funding of $2.7 million is pledged prior to June 2002 the total project will be finished by February 2003. Of course, all of this is dependent upon construction inflation.

In 2001, members of the City Council approached BRAVA since $960K in added revenue was realized. They requested BRAVA submit a Business Plan requesting $1.5 million. This can be done WITHOUT raising taxes ($3 million of the unusually large $9 million reserve is available). The City Council responded by not pledging any further support for now. Due to the resulting pause in construction, we predict significant increases in expenses for temporary maintenance and construction, equipment servicing, monitoring, re-bidding, inflation and change orders. Construction inflation alone last year was 19%, this year's rate is expected to remain near that amount causing the price to increase between $1.3M to $1.7M.

6. Why exactly is construction on hold?

Answer: Lack of funds. Construction started with the concurrence and insistence of all our public funding partners (City, County/M-NCPPC, State). They were informed at that time that our funding was sufficient to build only Phase 2, the building shell, and that we would be coming back to each of them for additional support this past year.

The State responded with an additional half million dollars and we are hopeful for more. BRAVA is actively pursuing many other sources, private and public to complete this long awaited dream. The building exterior will appear to be complete, with a finished exterior walls, windows, roofs, and doors.

7. Why construct in phases?

Some ask why the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts is being constructed in phases as funds became available, instead of waiting until all the funds are collected?

Over the last six years, each time we at BRAVA have requested funding at the State, County and City level, we have been granted only partial funding. We were told that this is typical: you can’t get additional funding until you put the funds you have to good use.

Another reason to build as soon as possible is to shelter our funds from the ravages of inflation and the building boom. This white-hot economy saw accumulated construction inflation of 59% in the Washington metropolitan area. At one time, we had a surplus of money for this project and returned money to the city, by the time permits were issued (a 13-month wait) the price of construction materials and lack of workers drove the price of this and all other prices up higher. Even the city of Bowie suffered the same fate with the Senior Citizen Center and Gym cost increases. We were then forced to construct the project in 4 phases, adding to its complexity, extending its schedule, and creating more work for our volunteers.

Because we were rebuffed in our requests for full funding this year, it is now too late to take advantage of the locked-in bid prices that have now expired. Our contractors have demobilized and are arranging to move on to other projects.

These funds cannot be raised by private citizens alone. Already community commitment for this project has far exceeded that shown for any other public facility in our area. We are happy to announce that we have surpassed the goal set in 1996 to raise $50,000 and have raised about $600,000 in private funds, which at the time seemed impossible.

8. Why not wait until we had all the money?