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November 18, 2015

Comments

"(3) Make the police facility expandable in the future, not super-sized now. " speaks to one of the biggest problems with government spending now, with both the democrats and republicans being culprits.

Government spending is very rarely "let's get enough to do whats needed," it's typically geared towards getting as much as possible now and spending it all, partially so that future increased spending need can be justified, and partially based on the irrational fear that the spending will not be available in the future so they should "get it while the gettings good," regardless of any rational current or projected future need.

Oh and don't forget how this whole process will be dragged out over time with thousands of needed city revenues being pumped into consultants' pockets every month like the whole 3rd bridge fiasco.

This all stinks of just more of the same old BS that the mayor and city council have become known for. All we need now is a Statesman article coming out blindly supporting the mayor/city council, and the scene will be complete.

Whatever happened to our brilliant, planned, idea of police substations??? community, neighborhood policing??? Salem, is well past the eruption of the Cascadia earthquake, creating destruction and havoc well beyond the Columbus Day storm

Salem is due for the tidal wave from the Cascadia earthquake from the Oregon coast, the Pacific Ocean, causing destruction and havoc far more damaging than the Columbus Day Storm, the Big Blow, of 1962, not too long ago.

No downtown police station will be able to survive, most local roads, I-5, Marion Bridge, both to and from will be twisted and wrecked, useless. Neighborhood substations, Highland, Grant, West Salem, and the rest, all neighborhoods, should have available police, fire, and ambulance, first aid stations open to all, open to all, substations are the only option, not one large, huge downtown police station

Note, in the event of a disaster, like Cascadia, the sheriff, second in command to Governor Kate Brown, is in charge, not Salem Police Chief Jerry Moore, strange, but true, by Oregon law

​Your Friend & Neighbor,​
Betty Arlene James, RN, BS, (Ret.)
Media Consultant, Honors Journalist
Writing from Oregon's Capitol, USA

​To promote paperless offices, to save our forests, please avoid printing.​

I looked at the DLR report, and I wonder who did the population projections? The footnote is misleading because the Census Bureau does not do local, or even state, population projections. The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis has produced county long term projections but not city projections as the latter are meaningless due to the reliance on city limits. What if Salem one day annexed the eastern unincorporated urban area, as Portland did? That would greatly increase the population and move the 'center of gravity' decidedly eastward.

Why would the mega pd be built downtown? (See my next paragraph for clue!) How about acting like a big city and move to the precinct model? The current downtown location would be kept as a central precinct, and one or more facilities could be built or obtained in east or southeast Salem. Service call data could be used to find available sites or facilities that minimize response time, one criterion that should figure high on the IACP list.

Most troubling of all is that the city hired a company that designs civic and justice facilities (DLR Group) to recommend an appropriate facility size. Is this a 'study' or a preliminary bid? One way or the other, this is a Mayberry move. I'm just not sure who the rubes are. Are they that dumb, or do they think we are?

O Salem city leaders, you are going to have to up your game. You can't phone this one in. This is big time.

siouxiep, excellent points. We also have to remember that consultants on a project like this get 10% or so of the total project cost if they are selected to oversee construction of the building. So there's an inherent motivation to recommend a large, expensive police facility.

In my health planning days, I used PSU population projections quite often. You're right: projecting population thirty years out is highly speculative, especially for cities. I suspect the consultants made up their own estimate, perhaps extrapolating from recent population trends.

Hopefully someone at the City of Salem is asking tough questions of the consultants. But from the reports I got about the first subcommittee meeting, it doesn't sound like it.

Also, nobody from the Statesman Journal was at the meeting, which is typical of our increasingly useless newspaper. The Statesman should be doing some serious investigative reporting on the police facility planning, but since they rarely challenge the Salem power structure, likely this won't happen.

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