Nero, Philly Pops to Open New Cape May Convention Hall

CAPE MAY – The Philly Pops Orchestra with Peter Nero will be the opening event for the city’s new Convention Hall, Memorial Day weekend 2012.
While the city may have wanted to make the announcement at later date, the cat was let out of the bag during a tense exchange between former mayor Jerry Gaffney and Mayor Edward J. Mahaney Jr. and Deputy Mayor Jack Wichterman at a Tue., Oct. 4 council meeting.
“Back in June, council gave the approval and I met with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops and we worked out an agreement for them to come down that Memorial Day weekend and play a gala fundraiser benefit for the city,” said Mahaney.
He said the Philly Pops is seeking to separate from the Philadelphia Orchestra and looking for additional venues for concerts due to the weak economy. Mahaney said the Philly Pops set a standard in music that is nationally known.
“To have them open our hall will set a standard for that hall,” he said. “It will also eliminate a very basic question that we have all the time: ‘How good are the acoustics in that hall?’”
Mahaney said the answer Cape May’s new marketing director, Mike Whipple will give, “If the new Convention Hall is good enough for the Philly Pops, it should be good enough for you.’”
The mayor said it gives the taxpayers an understanding of what the new hall is capable of doing. He said if the city holds such events three or four times a year as a fundraiser, the city will show a surplus of revenue on those types of concerts that will give the city a reserve fund to cover any deficits to operate the hall.
During public comment, following a presentation by city officials to establish a tourism utility to handle revenue and expenses related to marketing for the city and convention hall, Gaffney requested a document from the city covering construction costs of the hall from the first committee meeting four years ago to the present including money spend to date, how much is encumbered and “what the balances are.”
Mahaney said council would present a public project review of the construction and financing of the new Convention Hall based on the $10.5 million budget. He said of 3,800 permanent Cape May residents and 4,000 property owners, Gaffney was the only person requesting a financial report on Convention Hall.
Councilman William Murray said council member were receiving regular reports on the project.
The mayor said the city was committed to completing Convention Hall “on time and on budget.” Mahaney said the project was on target and within budget with contingency money for unforeseen matters that may occur.
Deputy Mayor Jack Wichterman said the report Gaffney requested would be “meaningless.” Wichterman said when the project for the facility was put out to bid, the city hoped for a cost under $8 million.
“We came in substantially under $8 million, we are monitoring this, we are paying the contractor as he goes along, we approve bills every month when they are submitted, we are having no problems what-so-ever and in fact we are going to go out for alternatives which are things we pulled out of the bid but now we can afford to go out for some alternatives we did not have in the original bid,” he said.
Mahaney said he city would furnish Gaffney with a financial report but it would be difficult to interpret.
“All I’m going to tell you is that there is nobody at this table that wants to be sitting here Memorial Day weekend explaining why the building didn’t open,” said the mayor.