Commissioner candidates in District 4 answer questions
August 2, 2012 at 7:00 pm in Alexandria Echo Press
Now it’s time for the candidates in Douglas County commissioner District 4 to have their say.
WHERE IS DISTRICT 4?
Douglas County District 4 includes Alexandria Township and parts of the city of Alex-andria Ward 1, precinct 2 and Ward 2.
To help voters reach a more informed decision for the primary election on August 12, the Echo Press mailed questionnaires to the commissioner candidates.
Here are the responses for those running in District 4 Paul C. Anderson, Bill Dropik, Don Kortie Jr. and Charlie Meyer. Continue Reading
I would say that the public works projects have been a disaster for the current county board. 8 or more years ago they were shown a plan for a new jail, law enforcement center (LEC), and courthouse. The most expensive of the options was 50 million dollars. There were other options for less money if I remember correctly, but some of the board focused on the huge 50 mil number. The project sat for years while they squabbled and fought. At the time, board members were Anderson, Bales, Olson, Mingus, and Johnson. Johnson and Bales fought hard to avoid the project and keep the downtown building. Mingus and Olson fought for progress. Anderson sat on the fence and when it came to it, would vote with Bales and Johnson. In the end, they decided that they didn’t want to buy any new land. And to avoid paying around 1 million dollars for a piece of property just west of the pipeline, they knocked down and rebuilt the county highway department on county property for 8 million dollars. Then they spend something around 15 million on the jail (I think). Now it was time to address the LEC. Instead of going ahead with the city and building a joint office on the same property as the jail, they opted to remodel. So when you add the city police at 5.1 million and the sheriff’s office remodel at 6-8 million dollars (a guess, total project is around 12 million for the county services building) to the jail blunder you come up with roughly 34-36 million dollars. Wait, I forgot to include the court’s holding at 2-3 million and the added cost of transporting inmates to court at ???. I am sure the project hit 40 million. We could have build a more than sufficient building with room to expand including new courtrooms for less than that on a green site. Instead law enforcement is now in three different buildings. This makes it harder for our cops to work together and fight crime in our community. It isolates our jail from the rest of the sheriff’s office. And it is a great disservice to our community. People do not know where to go for help. Citizens are constantly going to the police and then being asked to drive to the sheriff’s office and visa versa. Three members of our current board are responsible for that Anderson, Bales, and Johnson. Vote them out!
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I forgot to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted by Bales and company to study and re-study and re-study and re-study a downtown jail. Every time they were told it wasn’t feasible. And now that I think about it…that board did make a vote to go forwards with the project after Mingus was defeated by Salto. Anderson finally got it and voted yes. After Salto took his place, the board voted to undo the previous vote on the basis that Mingus’ term was about to be over and he shouldn’t have had the right to make that decision. Well he was in for a four year term. Not 3 years and 10 months. So Salto is to blame as well, go ahead and vote him out too! I want to make it clear, I am not about spending money and giving various departments whatever they want. But the jail had been condemned by the state and the LEC on 7th Ave was only supposed to be a 10 year band-aid. Well guess what, now they are spending millions more to put a band-aid on a band-aid. When is the roof gonna start leaking again? And when are they gonna start gutting the rest of the building? There is mold there too after all!
All the while the police department built a very nice building for 5.1 million…
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Go get em ‘left of center’. Of course the people you speak of will suddenly have a “Letter to the Editor” response filled with fluff and excuses. That’s how they get by.
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Also, it is mind boggling how the same people remain in office. People really need to get out and vote. Dont be afraid of change. Change is needed in this county.
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I agree we need change. However, how come nobody had the testicular fortitude to grade the current commission? No guts no glory…I’ll wade in, how does a D+ sound?
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If you are gonna give a thumbs down at least explain why. Obviously you think that they did a good job on that project. Or you are a relative…
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