SALISBURY, Md.- The city of Salisbury is working through it’s contract with Mentis Capital Partners, who is planning to develop a convention center and hotel at the city’s Lot 10 parking lot. Lot 10 sits behind the county courthouse.
The city accepted a 4 million dollar grant from the state of Maryland for the ‘infrastructure’ of this project. However mayor Randy Taylor and the developer cannot agree on what expenses can be covered by the ‘infrastructure’ grant.
"We've taken in the grant, and we're evaluating how the grant can be spent with the developer. We've received the budget and we're working on the details now," said Taylor.
At a council meeting on July 1st, Nick Simpson with Mentis Capital Partners told the city council this delay is frustrating and costly.
"We can no longer accept a shifting goal post and formally request that the mayor and city council move forward with the subrecipient agreement to fund the infrastructure improvements as defined by the department of general services who is funding the money for lot 10," said Simpson.
Simpson says what can be funded under ‘infrastructure’ is clearly outlined by the state, and should be given the green light by the mayor’s office.
Delegate Carl Anderton who worked to secure the funding says it’s imperative the city use the money correctly, or else receiving state funding in the future will become even more challenging.
"If you break that trust between, you know, the state of anybody, you break any kind of trust you have a hard time rebuilding that, and if the state allocated funding for a particular project and you use it elsewhere, you lose that trust and have a hard time finding funding in the future," said Anderton.
Despite accusations, Taylor says he wants and supports a convention center downtown and is not trying to slow the process.
“We’re a municipality and the mayor's office is trying to follow the rules and get the best project we can under the rules that we've been given,” said Taylor.
The city council will review an agreement at its next council meeting.