THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 21, 1995 TAG: 9502210296
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HERTFORD LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Members of the Northeast North Carolina Economic Development Commission will decide Wednesday whether they did the right thing in approving $110,000 of state matching money to help develop a resort hotel and conference center on Lake Gaston.
James Lancaster, executive director of the regional pump-priming commission, said Monday that Grover L. Edwards, the Northampton County promoter of the Lake Gaston project, owns some of the land involved in the $27 million proposal.
The commission is concerned that a conflict of interest might result from its designated director of the project personally benefiting from the funding arrangement.
The commission will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Soundside Restaurant in Washington County to reconsider the issue, Lancaster said at his Perquimans County office.
Last week, the commission voted - after considerable discussion - to approve the $110,000 matching grant for Edwards, a contractor who lives at Henrico, N.C., on the shore of Lake Gaston a mile south of the Virginia border.
The money would come from $1.4 million in state funds that the economic commission has in the bank. The funds were appropriated by the General Assembly last year to operate the commission through June of 1996.
The commissioners required that the grant money be matched dollar-for-dollar by the counties of Northampton, Warren and Halifax, which would benefit from the conference center and a resort hotel that would include an 18-hole golf course.
Earl Daniels, manager of Northampton County, said the Northampton Board of Commissioners ``approved the concept'' of the Lake Gaston complex Feb. 13.
``But no money has been committed,'' Daniels said. ``This is viewed as a regional project that would help several counties, including Northampton County.''
It was not clear whether Edwards told any members of the regional development commission last week that he and his family owned some of the several hundred acres of land that would ultimately be purchased for the conference center.
``It's no secret around Northampton County,'' said Daniels. ``Grover Edwards has been working on this thing for 19 years.''
Grover C. Edwards, 77-year-old father of the developer and a retired partner in the Edwards contracting firm, said the land in question was made up of several tracts. ``We own about 50 acres, I believe,'' the senior Edwards said.
A glowing feasibility report on the proposed conference center was prepared for Edwards by EBBARC International Inc., a development consulting firm in Norcross, Ga.
Ken Wright, director of planning for EBBARC, said the Lake Gaston complex would generate employment for nearly 500 residents and bring an annual economic impact of $12 million to the area.
Wright said the survey showed that a hotel and conference center, surrounded by recreational facilities, would serve an area centered on Richmond and Raleigh west to the Triad cities of North Carolina. by CNB