Chapter 31 - Local News

Chapter 31: Local News

There was a piece in our town’s paper about the game, it was only a small article, spending more time covering the JV and Varsity games, both who had narrowly lost their own first games. I was named as the outstanding player of a group of promising freshmen.

We had a good time that weekend, I was on a high after our win and being given the game ball, we had a party on Saturday, I say party, we had a barbeque in the backyard, Rory came but no one else, the pool was available so we did play around it a bit, but it was still a little cold to spend too much time in the water.

Sunday Bill turned up on the doorstep, he had arranged the meeting with my parents, but they had told him he really needed to talk to me about his proposal.

We all sat in the lounge, he told me that a local business was in financial trouble, it had been losing money for a while, mainly because the furnishings were getting old, the walls hadn’t been painted in years and the entrance still looked like it did when it opened.

He was talking about the town cinema, it showed all the most up to date releases, but a lot of the people from town went to another cinema in Tifton or Albany, as it was a much nicer experience having been built only in the last few years, so was in much better shape than the local one.

If the cinema had a major refit and modernized everything, it would be likely to regain the popularity it used to have. The problem was the current owner. He was getting on in years and had never done anything to keep the place looking nice. His son wanted to take it over, but the old man was being stubborn, even though it was on the verge of bankruptcy.

The son had approached my group when he heard about the charity work they were doing. Bill had taken over, not thinking a charity donation would do the job, only providing money for it to stay open for just a while longer, not doing anything to improve the facilities, he didn’t think the owner would let the son take over without a little pressure from the people providing the money to keep them solvent.

“So what is your proposal Bill?” I was interested to find out, I had a good idea of what Andy would want, and this was a good test to see if Bill was in the same sort of league as Andy to continue looking after my local business interests.

“A fifty percent ownership for a half million investment” Bill stated, the business isn’t really worth that, but if we can bring all the locals back, it could get back to that sort of value.

“That seems like a lot of ifs and buts for a lot of money to maybe recoup” I queried.

“True, but it has always been a big focal point for the community. It has diminished to the point that it has caused problems which have been noticed.” Bill explained.

“What sort of problems.” I wanted to know.

“Crime and drugs” Bill stated, “It sounds strange that something as commonplace as a cinema could make such a difference, but they are relatively cheap entertainment, the local kids have stopped going, well their parents stopped going so they have too, now those kids are finding other things to do, most of the time that has led them down the wrong sort of path.”

“Sounds sensible, alright, I will want to see the company books and the son, I will want him in charge, not the old man if this is to work, I will also want to have a top cinema architect to do the designs for the refit, I will want something I am sure works, so someone who has experience in this specific field is essential, get hold of Andy, he will have a better of idea of the type of person I want to do the design and refurb work. Also if I understand the current market, you have understated the cost of the refurb work, I think it will be more like $750,000 to do the job properly, so use that as a basis on which to offer as a potential investment, all of which is dependent on those stipulations.”

“Geez Jack, you really do know your stuff don’t you, all that without even looking at the other information I brought with me to show you.”

“I have had some experience.” I mentioned, Mom and Dad burst out laughing, Bill looked confused. “Let’s just say I am part owner in a couple of other businesses which will finance this even if it is a bust, so I can afford to take some chances, but I prefer to make a profit, so I do my homework before committing any of my money.”

Bill looked reassured, collected his papers together, which I hadn’t even got to look at and took his leave.

The next piece of local news was about Rory, he found a job at a local photo shop, running the counter to allow the guy who ran the shop to concentrate on doing the printing and computer work.

It was only three times a week, from five to nine, it would mean he had to prioritize his time to make sure his schoolwork was done, but at least it would be a steady income to allow him some freedom and to make better dates with April, which looked like becoming a steady relationship.

I was still paying for gas to pick me up after practice, but it wasn’t enough for him to have much left over to use the truck other than that, this would allow him to use it more, as long as he was careful.

He wouldn’t be able to pick me up on Wednesday’s as that would be a day he was working, so his income from me would be halved from next week.

Monday the team got a lot of back slaps from the rest of the students, even some of the senior teams. Well the rest of the team did, I was basically ignored as usual by the majority of the other students. I was fine with that, getting second hand compliments from seeing other team members congratulated was good enough for me.

I hoped if I continued to contribute to the team, then it would override the poor opinion of me most of the students had. But it would take time, but I had plenty of that, at least three more years if my parents had their way.

I still hadn’t worked out who the girl was who gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek. She wasn’t in any of my classes, I hadn’t seen her around school either, I just hoped she wasn’t someone’s younger sister or something like that, that would just get me even more grief in school. I hadn’t heard anything from the rumor mill, so it didn’t seem like anyone else had seen it, or knew her if they had.