I'm deeply disturbed -- no, let's make that pissed off -- at how making the Library and City Hall earthquake-safe is being ignored by the Salem City Council.
Mayor Peterson and the eight councilors are focused on an ill-considered $83 million plan for a new over-priced 148,000 square foot police facility. A few years ago City officials were fine with a 75,000 square foot, $40 million police facility.
But after some Chicago consultants came to town, the size doubled along with the cost.
And that made money for urgently needed seismic upgrades to the Library and City Hall go bye-bye, since City officials didn't think taxpayers would pay for an over-sized police facility and making the Civic Center buildings earthquake safe.
So saving the lives of children at the Library's Storytime is less important to them than building a Police Palace that's twice the size of the proposed building the Police Chief and Mayor were happy with in 2013.
Today I made a video explaining why it is so important to make funds for seismically retrofitting the Library and City Hall part of a Public Safety bond that also would include money for a new police facility. This was the original plan of City officials before the size and cost of the police facility mushroomed.
(Having just learned about Adobe Spark, I used it to make the video.)
Nice Job, Brian!
Posted by: Harry Vanderpool | June 07, 2016 at 05:20 PM