Statement of PA Dutch CVB President Kathleen Frankford
The Board of the PA Dutch CVB voted today to sign the Collaboration Agreement as presented by Commissioner Martin on June 18 regarding the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority.
We were joined, via phone, by Commissioner Martin and by other county staff onsite, and they were able to provide us with a fuller, more-detailed picture of the agreement than we had on Tuesday.
While we wanted Penn Square Partners to join the rest of the key stakeholders in contributing to this agreement, after further discussion today, we felt that signing the agreement was the best available alternative to risking a loan default for the facility, along with higher interest rates, and a harmful impact on the county’s finances.
We remain hopeful that this medium-term solution will help the convention center, and we will now turn to working with Commissioner Martin and others on finding ways to return us to an adequate level of tourism marketing funding, for the benefit of the entire community.