FIRST ON 3 UPDATE: Your tax $ and the Gravely; McColl asked for $50k to avoid cutting budget

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) – Louise McColl, the co-chair of the group in charge of the Commissioning of the USS Gravely and the 11-day party for its crew, admitted today she asked for tax-payer money instead of cutting the budget for the commissioning.

She told a local TV station this afternoon that she was under-budget by $50,000 a few weeks out, and went to the Wilmington City Council Members and New Hanover Commissioners for the money. “We could have (cut back),” she said, “We just, at that late point, we didn’t. We probably, you know, we could have done that.”

WWAY NewsChannel 3 was the first local station to ask her, council members and commissioners why $50,000 was being spent on a party for a ship that was coming here anyway when we’re in the midst of tax increases and a recession.

McColl says the entire budget for the event was $206,000, but has only disclosed what $58,000 was spent on, including:
> Fireworks Display – $25,000
> Transportation – $17,500 (mandatory)
> A plaque for the crew (McColl says this was a mandatory expense)
> And Gravely biographies for the crew – $5,100

She also confirmed today that crew members were treated to a BBQ lunch, some were taken deep-sea fishing, which she says the Commissioning Committee paid for, some were treated to golf at Landfall, which she said the residents there paid for, and some toured Screen Gems Studio, which she says was split between the committee and the studio.

The committee still hasn’t reported on what the other $148,000 was spent on.

McColl also said she feels harassed by the media regarding the tax-payer portion of the budget. When asked if she would do it again, McColl said, “I don’t know. I can’t answer that. When I look at a $2 million investment, and they each put in $25,000, an eighth of the budget, I don’t know what I would do. Would I not ask them because of the harassment everybody’s given on this one thing – from the media – maybe then I wouldn’t.”