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Arts center loses funds in squabble
By DAN DeWITT
© St. Petersburg Times, BROOKSVILLE -- Margaret "Weenie" Ghiotto's efforts to pitch in with the effort to build the Nimmagadda Cultural Center have not gone well. First, she offered to donate 14 acres for the building next to her Brooksville business, Rogers Christmas House Village. She was thanked for her offer, but told a site in Spring Hill had already been chosen. Then, about three weeks ago, she was poised to give $200,000 to the Hernando Fine Arts Council toward the the construction of the center, by far the project's largest single donation. She withdrew the offer when she found out the auditorium was to be named after Oak Hill Hospital. She had suggested naming it after her mother, Alice Spencer Rogers, or Barbara Manuel, the current president of the council and a longtime performing arts teacher at Hernando High School. She emphatically does not want it named after a hospital or any other corporate entity. "What is just killing me is that a beautiful, 1,000-seat concert hall is going to be named after Oak Hill Hospital. I'd do anything to make them realize how stupid that is," she said. "It de-glamorizes the whole thing." Vince Vanni, a consultant for the project, said the plan to name the auditorium for Oak Hill was no secret. It has been has been public knowledge for more than a year, shortly after the hospital announced it would donate $50,000 to the center. Ghiotto and some members have criticized the council for agreeing to name both the center and the concert hall so early and for relatively small donations. The total cost of the project is expected to be about $4.5-million. Luring big donors to pay this bill will be more difficult, Ghiotto said, if the council cannot offer naming rights. Vanni said the project had been stalled for several years by 1999, when the family of the late Dr. Sriramamurthy Nimmagadda, formerly Oak Hill's chief of staff, offered to donate $50,000. Oak Hill, likewise, came forward early in the effort, Vanni said. "Up until we had those donations, we had nothing," Vanni said. "Now, everybody says, hey, we sold out cheap. But without those donations there would not be a cultural center in Hernando County." The project will be built on a 5-acre parcel near the Little Red Schoolhouse in southwest Spring Hill. The Spring Hill Civic Association has agreed to donate the property. It has been appraised at $100,000, Vanni said, meaning it can be used as matching funds toward a state grant similar to the one the council recently received. That grant, for $103,000, as well as other recent donations, have brought the total amount collected to nearly $500,000, he said. That does not mean the council would not have appreciated Ghiotto's contribution, said Manuel, who also said she has no interest in having her name on the auditorium. "Let's face facts; $200,000 is a lot of money. That would have been the icing on the cake," she said. It would have been especially important because it would have boosted the amount the council could have requested from the state. Manuel, an old friend of Ghiotto's, said she originally approached her about donating to the project. She also hopes that she can still convince her to participate, both for the sake of the project and Ghiotto. "I definitely want her to be a part of it," she said. - Times staff writer Joy Davis-Platt contributed to this report. Discuss this and other issues in our Web-based discussion forum at www.sptimes.com/hernandoforum.
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