{"id":7888,"date":"2013-09-08T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2013-09-08T13:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/?p=7888"},"modified":"2013-09-07T22:33:24","modified_gmt":"2013-09-08T02:33:24","slug":"halifax-countys-60000-prizery-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/08\/halifax-countys-60000-prizery-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Halifax County’s $60,000 Prizery Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Boston\/Halifax County’s The Prizery got a no-interest $60,000 loan last year from Halifax County. It’s time to repay the loan and it looks like The Prizery doesn’t have the money.<\/p>\n

WOW! Didn’t see that one coming…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Prizery loan repayment tabled<\/a><\/h3>\n

The Prizery is awesome. It’s a very big part of Southside entertainment and culture environment. The concept was impressive and the fulfillment of that concept turned into an impressive building that can be used for multiple purposes. So why in the hell can’t the Prizery break even at least instead of continuing to ask for Other People’s Money?<\/p>\n

Halifax County Administrator Jim Halasz Gets It. He’s got the attitude of “We want the money we loaned at no cost and we want it back when you promised it.” surprisingly, former banker Doug Bowman (who was put on the Prizery board as a condition of the loan) who’s normally quite tough on fiscal conservatism is taking the Prizery’s side in this repayment dilemma. Bowman knows how to run the financial side of any business so I do respect his viewpoint on matters like this.<\/p>\n

However, some of his statements call for full public financial disclosure since public money is now involved. When the article says…<\/p>\n

Bowman, who was appointed to The Prizery board last year as a condition of the loan, said he had witnessed a great deal of progress being made in the restructuring and make-up of The Prizery in its effort to become a sustainable business model.<\/p>\n

He referred to \u201cbusiness hurdles\u201d The Prizery faced last September when supervisors loaned the $60,000 saying \u201cthey have been satisfied.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a while to turn around this ship, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel on the business side,\u201d Bowman said, adding, \u201cBusiness people are running the business side now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…it makes people wonder what went wrong and to what extent before this latest financial problem happened. We’ve never been told specifically why and where The Prizery was losing all of this money and it seems that it’s been going on for a long time.\u00a0 Being an elected official, Doug Bowman is not completely doing his fiduciary duty without being more specific on what these “business hurdles” were and how they were satisfied. The Prizery has no legal obligation to disclose these issues but it would go a long way in establishing credibility with Halifax County and the region.<\/p>\n

Here’s a list of The Prizery’s board members.<\/p>\n