Did UVSC jump gun on stadium?

PRICE — Utah Valley State College received approval to seek bonding for its new baseball stadium but not without a slap on the wrist from the state Board of Regents.

It's expected that the $3.8 million Parkway Crossing Baseball Stadium on UVSC's Orem campus will be paid for with private pledges but over several years. The timing of the donations meant that UVSC was forced to bond in order to pay for upfront costs.

The problem some regents had during their meeting in Price Friday was that construction on UVSC's "Division 1 quality" baseball stadium had begun without an approved funding mechanism in place.

"I hope that others will not follow this pattern in the future," said regent David Grant.

Acting chairman George Mantes joined Grant as the only regents who voted against UVSC's request to go through Utah County's municipal bonding authority to fund the stadium. UVSC will make annual payments to Utah County to pay for the bond.

"I think they were wrong to physically start on the project without our approval," Mantes said.

Grant said the process to fund the stadium started out flawed and that it's still questionable. That's because student fees are now being used as collateral in case the pledges fall through. Regents were surprised in an April 2004 meeting to learn of the new risk to students.

Commissioner of Higher Education Rich Kendell on Friday called UVSC's funding methods an "interesting agreement" but one that is financially sound. The risk to students, he said, is "almost zero." Using fees to back up the pledges, he said, was to "keep the bond folks comfortable with this."

Once UVSC's stadium is built, there will be no student fees used to fund ongoing maintenance and operations, according to Val Peterson, UVSC vice president for administration and external affairs. And the state won't be asked to kick in any funds either.

"We know we have the money to pay for the stadium," Peterson said.

There were several options discussed early on how to fund the stadium, and UVSC ended up following legal advice by bonding and including student fees in the equation, Peterson said. "There's no doubt this financial package evolved during the process."

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