And with two unanimous votes it was done.
Oh, there will be a few more procedural votes, but with financing approvals from the Chattanooga City Council and Hamilton County Commission a new, $115 million Chattanooga Lookouts stadium that will anchor development of former foundry property on South Broad Street is finally nearing a reality.
In truth, we suspect — and have said before — that the baseball stadium always was going to happen. However, we would argue that the proposal agreed to by both governmental bodies earlier this week is more palatable for taxpayers and the community than it might have been had it been rushed through as initially proposed.
Even with an improved deal, we’re still not sure the majority of Hamilton County residents approve of public financing for a private entity, which is what the Lookouts are in spite of the fact the stadium itself will be owned by a city-county sports authority.
The public financing has been one of the complaints by Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp who, despite his reservations about the initial deal, agreed to honor what had been agreed to in a vote one month before he came into office by then-Mayor Jim Coppinger and the then-county commission.