Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/309372
within the first year after the improvements are completed. "Increasing membership for any organization by 25 percent is quite an amazing goal," she added. "The local BMX- ers, I betcha, are already members." For another example, she pointed out that the forecast calls for track rental income to increase from $20,000 in the 2015 fiscal year to $45,000 in FY 2016. "What is triggering that?" Chairman Charles Hines agreed with her con- cerns. "This commission, I believe, has clearly said sports tourism is something that we want to invest in," he noted, but in exchange for the investments it is making, the groups that will be operating facilities should provide detailed business plans. Moreover, Hines noted, about a year ago, BMX competitors and other supporters of improving the county's track indicated the facility would be the only one of its kind on the East Coast of the United States and, therefore, a focal point for national and inter- national training and competitions. During the board's Aug. 20, 2013 budget workshop, Percy Owens of Sarasota, a world BMX champion, said the "local impact of Supercross [at the county's BMX facility] will be awesome." Owens added that if the county had an upgraded facility, "It will bring all kinds of attention from a national standpoint." Amanda Carr, a Punta Gorda native and the world amateur BMX champion in 2005 and 2006, told the commissioners that because the only Supercross track in the United States is in California — and it is very difficult for athletes A schedule presented to the County Commission on May 7 shows most of the planned benchmarks for the BMX project. The improvements are expected to be completed in July 2015. Sarasota News Leader May 9, 2014 Page 45