Washington County gives $1 million to ETSU center
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) – East Tennessee State University’s drive to get a new fine arts center has gotten a $1 million boost from Washington County.
County commissioners on Monday approved giving the school the $100,000 annually over a 10-year period. The school is pushing to collect $10.2 million for the center.
That money covers the required 25 percent match to state funding of $30.6 million with which the university plans to build the new $40 million facility.
Commissioner Sam Humphreys told The Johnson City Press (http://bit.ly/1tBSQlj ) he opposed the funding because officials haven’t had enough time to review the proposal.
According to the resolution for the funding, the county could see a nearly $44 million economic benefit for construction of the arts center in 2016 and a more than $21 million impact in 2017.
