Centreville carousel sale at risk
Residents, councillors in Indiana balk at ponying up $5 million for ride
The city of Carmel, Ind., is $800 million (U.S.) in debt and its mayor is looking to get another $100 million loan to fund a luxury hotel and an antique carousel from Toronto.
Carmel’s purchase of the carousel came as a surprise to Tim Hannon, a local physician who only learned of the plan six weeks ago when he went to a city council meeting. “It seemed fairly unreasonable from a spending point of view,” he said. “Not a good use of public funds.”
Hannon created a petition demanding the Carmel council “seek out a donor or donors (individual and corporate) to finance it.” The petition has sparked what American media is calling “Carouselgate” in the small city of 100,000 people, and presently has more than 1,600 supporters.
“It’s a matter of spending priorities,” Hannon said. “If we’re going to take out loans, let’s only take them for public safety, schools or for critical infrastructure.”
Carmel is an affluent city in Indiana, Hannon said. “The carousel is not the centrepiece of our economic redevelopment. We already have lots of other things; the additional benefit may be better for another city.”
One resident who signed the petition agreed that the carousel wouldn’t increase the quality of life in Carmel, as the mayor keeps suggesting.
“I love that I live in a nice city, but too much money is spent on making Carmel ‘fancy,’ ” the resident wrote.
At a Carmel city council finance committee meeting on Aug. 28, many council members told the mayor they would remove the $5 million (U.S.) intended to fund the carousel from a $101-million bond package under consideration, which includes the construction of a luxury hotel.
The purchase agreement between Bill Beasley, owner of Toronto’s Centreville Amusement Park, and James Brainard, mayor of Carmel for the last 22 years, was signed on July 21. It stipulates that the city of Carmel has until Oct. 31 to make arrangements for the payment and will take possession of it by Nov. 5. The total purchase price is set for $2,694,130 — a historical record for carousel sales.
Mayor Brainard declined to comment for this story.
This deadline may be difficult to meet, according to Christine Pauley, the city of Carmel’s clerk-treasurer. The intention to purchase the carousel was only brought to city council’s attention on July 17, and took place without their approval — something the offer to purchase is “contingent on,” according to the agreement.
“The mayor had done some preliminary work unbeknownst to some,” Pauley said. “We didn’t get a headsup until the bond issue near the end of July.”
“There really is no clarity to the situation,” Beasley said. “They are looking at other sources of funding . . . we’re hoping the agreement still goes through.”
Centreville’s attendance was significantly down this year, hindered first by the closure due to floods, and afterward due to more rainy forecasts, costing the amusement park $8 million (Canadian) in revenue.
Indiana law permits cities to have a local public improvement bond bank, which provides loans (a combination of taxpayer and state-provided revenue), for redevelopment and maintenance projects.
Many councillors have told Pauley, who doesn’t vote on the issue at council, that the bond that will fund the carousel is not going to pass, with one telling her that “it’s completely dead.” Five out of seven councillors have opposed it publicly.
Pauley says that “Carouselgate” doesn’t mean the sale isn’t going through. It just means the mayor needs to find a public-private partnership or a historical society or nonprofit that can take up the cost.
Hannon, too, has nothing against the carousel, and is sad to see it leave Toronto.
“It seems to mean so much to you all,” he said, “but it’s not worthy of our taxpayer funds.”
The situation has been “a kind of a civic lesson” for Hannon.
“We need to be paying attention and be more vocal about what’s happening in our city.”
Carmel’s finance committee is expected to finalize the details of the bond package, including funding for the carousel, late Wednesday.
“It seems to mean so much to you all . . . but it’s not worthy of our taxpayer funds.” TIM HANNON CARMEL, IND., PHYSICIAN