September 1, 2010 at 3:05 am in South Washington County Bulletin
In the Aug. 25 edition of the Bulletin, the newspaper staff questioned the process, need, and decisions to date for the public safety/city hall project. Continue Reading
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jgreenwood@gfherald.com
Mayor Bailey makes some very valid points although I feel the preselected location is wrong. This falls under the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” category.
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I ran in the 2008 campaign, I don’t remember a single question about a new City Hall. We were all talking Community Center.. 5-10 million. And we all agreed if it came time to build one we would have a referendum.
There are so many issues still unanswered, how about two off the top of my head.
1) We may need a new PS building.. But including a City Hall, at the price of 17,000,000.00 is too much! Also don’t forget the new building will cost $340,000.00 or 150% of the current building to operate.
2)In the article is described as a “short-term housing market doldrums”. I just deleted a paragraph of adjectives, would have been a waste for you to read it. It’s a recession. Many unemployed. Many have lost their homes. The housing prices is minor compared to other issues…. The reason prices are low right now is because no one has extra money to spend.
Government doesn’t have money to spend, because that comes from us. We’re just putting it on the old Credit Card? Look at the Feds, record debts that we have no idea how we will pay off. State? They don’t know how they will fund their budget… County? I little better, but they are cutting back. And City (who falls under all that) is going to build a new complex?
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A petition has been started to place this as a Referendum on a ballot.. Have you signed it yet?
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lehrke007@hotmail.com
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Yes the mayor makes many points. he also side steps several. he doesn’t answer the question the bulleten asked about letting the voters vote for it. He doesn’t say anything about why wtat the city builds keeps costing us more money every year. example the Hockey Arena. Since built the city has done improvements of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Where i’m sure the project is up over seven million dollars. If you remember the city first said it would cost us 4-4.5 million. Yes Derrick the question was asked at the league of Women Voters Forum. In my opinion the saving of 4.5 million for this project not only cost some city employees their jobs, it cost us many worth while projects in our parts and other parts of the city.
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First, yes, I think this project needs to move forward – let’s get that out of the way. I agree with Buzz in that we are damned if we do (people will hate it for spending money now) and damned if we don’t (where Myron says that in five years people will complain we didn’t build now).
But, look at the facts, our public safety quarters are not only inadequate, but dangerous for officers and for people who have been arrested. The reason city hall and public safety should be together is a cost and administrative savings. It would be silly for the city to own two buildings, one that would be very outdated and require constant upkeep. Instead, this would be one building, with the other available for sale for commecial development. This project has been budgeted for with general funds. And, we are at a time when labor costs are much less, which would be a significant savings over future costs. No, we are not in a recession anymore, Derrick, we are in the recovery period where the economy is growing but people are still nervous. This means labor costs and interest rates are still low, so the bond market would be very favorable to the city as well. If this project waits 5 to 10 years, the cost would more than double. This goes back to what I have said since 2008 – READ the budget, UNDERSTAND the budget. The city of Cottage Grove is in significantly better financial shape than most government entities in Minnesota. And by doing expansions like this, we are put a stake in the ground in telling developers that we are looking to the future and not sitting on our hands like everyone else. I’m so sick of this party platform crap, on both sides. It’s short-sighted and doesn’t actually look at what is happening on the very local level. On side says tax and the other side says cut and neither side has a clue about what they would tax or what they would cut. Oh, and don’t forget, the county is looking at moving the library, which more than likely would go out on 19 near the new government center, which would leave the current city hall sitting by itself. This solution makes the entire property saleable.
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Chris your off the mark again. Housing prices are still falling, people are still losing their jobs and homes. Some say the economy will come up a but soon, then fall for a double dip.. We are still pumping printed money into the system… The feds are working on yet another stimulus package… And that money needs to come from somewhere.
It’s true something needs to be done for Public Safety. No one said otherwise.
And again. Prices are cheap right now? Why? Because people can’t afford to be building, we BROKE. A great indicator why now is not the time for government expansion.
There are so many good, unanswered questions. Size, Price, Location, Timing, etc But yet the council just moves forward without answering them…. AND without really caring if anyone knows what is going on. They have done nothing over the legal requirements… Did they post notices in Their website, or facebook, or put it in the water bill? NO. They advertise everything else. Is a 17 million dollar complex public hearing meeting not important to the citizens?
Crossing party lines? I agree with you… Did you know that in the first 100 signatures I received by walking door-to-door only 1 said “we don’t sign anything”…. I had one person say, “Derrick I never thought we would agree on anything, GIVE me a pen!”….
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I thought the original discussion was “we need a new public safety†building! Our city has the extra $5 + million because our taxes have not gone down. Now our homes are worth less and we still pay the same in taxes?
You say, “we are not in a recession anymore . . . we’re in the recovery period� I don’t necessarily like clichés – but what flavor is the cool-aid? I also like the comment I read recently, “if pumping money into people’s pockets stimulates the economy, then vacuuming money from their pockets should depress the economy. Given how sad today’s economy is, depressing it even further may make it leap out a window.†The economy cannot grow (at least in the private sector) as long as government continues to raise taxes and blatantly spends, spends and spends. And besides – government does not create wealth – the private sector does.
You do know that the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts expire on January 1, 2011. Not my figures, but the Congressional Budget Office calculates, this will cost taxpayers $115 billion next year alone. Think about this . . . when the Bush tax cuts end, it will cause $2.6 trillion to shift from private control to Congress – that’s because our personal income tax will go up from 15% to 39%. You get the idea? When the money is no longer in OUR pockets, it will be in the pockets of the great Congress and they will use it and distribute it to their pleasure and whims! Recently I heard for every 5 houses out on the market for sale, there is only 1 buyer, so what happens to the other 4 houses with no one to buy them? In 2005 when everyone was thinking “pie in the sky†and spending because there was no end, underneath, our economy was starting to crumble. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were giving out sub-prime mortgages to people who could never afford them because ‘everyone should have the American dream’ right? Our stock market was tanking, people were buying brand new cars they could not afford and, somehow, it was suppose to be OK because we should all have what everyone else has and now Barney Frank and the gang are doing it all over again.
At that time in Cottage Grove, yes it perhaps looked like we could invest in a new building, however, we are living in the ‘here and now’ and ‘here’ we can see that the people do NOT have the extra money to give over for more projects, ‘here’ we can see we have many vacant buildings available to use and ‘now’ is not the time to spend $17,000,000.00! Look for other options – be creative with what we have as most over-burdened taxpayers need to do!
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What I don’t like is that we haven’t had a voice in this discussion. Somewhere along the way, 17 million was decided as cost. We weren’t told how this was going to be paid. There weren’t options. We are still in a recession in my book, just last month another neighbor lost their home. We need to look at our spending, and what we are doing as a city. Seems like this is really getting “railroaded in” and have to worry about what agenda our Council & Mayor are doing. Talk to the community BEFORE ANOTHER STEP IS TAKEN. We have to wonder why things are being moved along so fast, can’t believe it is that the cost factor is the only one out there. Seems like it is being pushed through so that there won’t be much discussion and disagreement. Chris, I don’t see this as bipartisan at all. This is what our city council, mayor & administrator are pushing, and we don’t like it. You know the city could have well publized this meeting, and I don’t think ANYONE knew about it. Very scary for the citizens of CG to have a few in a our city controlling this right now.
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I hate this area voices … I wish they would go back to the old way.
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BOTTOM LINE: Taxpayers should be able to VOTE on this huge project. If the majority say “yes”, then full speed ahead. Both sides will have the opportunity to persuade voters. Recession or no recession, a VOTE is needed on this $17 million project. I am amazed that ANYONE would say that a vote is not needed. ROCK THE VOTE IN COTTAGE GROVE!
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Then what is the point of having local representation? Is there a dollar figure that should be set? Anything over $100 needs to go up for a vote?
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Come on Chris, your being ridiculous. This is what is wrong with politics. Defending something not on merits, but because it was your friends idea.
We’re not talking about 100.00 or 100,000.00 or 1,000,000.00… It’s 17 million dollars.
When questioned about 5-10 million you agreed with a referendum…..
We have almost always had a referendum for all large projects… And the city normally makes it public…
Does it not concern you that everyone knows and had a vote on Christmas decorations, but the City Hall is known by very few people? Does it concern you that there were no answers to questions raised by citizens at the “public hearing”? Believe it or not I hold you in high regards an many things…. I know there is no may you would have sat in your council chair, listen to 10, 20, 30 questions and then not answer a single one.
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