The Arts of Collin County (ACC) Project was on Tuesday night’s city council agenda. Executive Director of the Organization, Mike Simpson, had to endure a somewhat long and grueling meeting with many questions, oppositions and supports of the project.  In the end the council decided to call a second meeting on Monday at 2 p.m. to decide what there course of action would be concerning the item.

Despite mixed support from council concerning the project, Simpson is still a firm believer.

“I think there is no doubt that this project will move forward,” he said.

 A $200 million bond package was passed in 2002 with $19 million of that allocated to the ACC project. The City of Frisco has already invested $ 2.6 million for the planning and design of the project as well as operating cost of the commission.  Now the city must decide what to do with the other $16.4 million in bonds, hence Mondays meeting.

The council can make several choices regarding the other money; they can decide to sell the bonds immediately, they can deice to put the project back on the May ballot and let voters decide if they still want to be part of the agreement, they can terminate their relationship with the ACC altogether or they could wait several weeks until contribution agreements are finalized and decided then.

Simpson wants to see the project move forward. He sees no reason to revote. Public meetings were held in October and November of 2003 to take input on the project moving forward as a three city partnership instead of the four city partnership that was voter approved. Simpson said he pulled the public meeting minutes from the three meetings held and that in total 15 people spoke at those meetings with 11 in support of a three city partnership and four people opposed. Since then the item has continued to be on the on public meeting agendas for the city and that the ACC commission budgets are publically approved every year.

“All along it has been very public and very transparent,” Simpson said. “I hope they (the council) will not decide to take a revote.”

He continued the thought by saying that the council needs to base make a business decision. He has no idea how it will affect the project until the time comes but he will continue to raise money and move forward in every way that he can.

He accepted the latest contribution to the ACC on Thursday night at a fund raiser.  Scott Carpenter, the owner of a law firm in Plano, donated all the stone that will be on the walls in the inside of the theatre.  Carpenter owns a stone quarry in San Saba, TX where all the stone is coming from. In total Simpson said the donation is worth about $100,000.