Amid baseball talk, board chairman reiterates anti-taxpayer funded stadium stance

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WECT) - Leaders in New Hanover County know how much they would need to spend to support minor league baseball in the Port City, but the chairman of the board says he's still not going to use taxpayer money.

Ted Davis says any mention of tax dollars for baseball will not go far with him, and says that spending any taxpayer money for a stadium in the city is unreasonable.

Davis has no problem with fellow commissioner Jonathan Barfield keeping up on the baseball talks, as long as he knows he is not speaking for the county.

Tuesday, Barfield said having the county pay $600,000 a year for 20 years is a reasonable request from the city to be part of the project.

Davis is opposed to taxpayer money, but is still waiting for a second solution.

"I was not going to participate in any of the discussions unless the city brings me something other than the use of tax payer money," said Davis. "If they want to do that, I'd be glad to enter the discussions, but they haven't."

The chance of the county joining the baseball project would wait until after the public votes on the issue in November.

At that point, there would also be a new board of county commissioners to discuss it.

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