CHARLESTON, W.Va. –Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango says there waiting for funding from the federal government in order to move forward with the Capitol Sports Center.

Commission President Ben Salango

Salango appeared on 580 Live with Dave Allen Tuesday morning where he discussed the project. The center will be located where the old Macy’s building was in downtown Charleston.

He said right now there is $7 million dollars of congressionally directed spending funds earmarked in the federal budget for this year.

However, the money was accrued by former U.S. Senator Joe Manchin last year.

“You know that was in last year’s budget, the budget didn’t pass after the election and so there’s 7 million dollars that’s hanging out there that we have not received an update on,” Salango said.

He said that when the money didn’t pass, he talked to people in congress.

“And honestly I’ve talked to some of the folks in congress and it’s very unusual to have an earmark like that not go through but it’s very unusual times that we’re living in, so we’re concerned that it won’t happen,” Salango said.

He said that they had other money ready to go from when they talked to the finance people about bonding and then talked to dedicated revenue streams from the county to pay for the bonds, however without the federal money the project can’t move forward. And funding to get the project started came from the Kanawha County Commission themselves and the City of Charleston who put in $5 million dollars, along with Manchin’s office who contributed $2 million dollars.

Right now, Salango said that if they don’t get the money, they are faced with two options.

“We either have to scale back the project or kind of put the project on hold until we get the money at some point in the future,” he said.

Currently the center is expected to have six basketball courts or 12 volleyball courts, two wrestling mats, eight pickle ball courts, a fitness center, a turf soccer field, a track, a swimming pool, a rock-climbing wall and a main gymnasium.

The project is expected to cost $80 million dollars.