|
At first glance
it seemed to me to be a deal that we couldn't refuse —
a place to put the building official and clerk, the town
planner and the zoning enforcement officer and their clerk,
and last but not least, a building that you didn't have
to build on land that you didn't have to buy. We
would all like to have everyone under one roof, but we
should weigh the pros and cons in order to draw the right
conclusions.
Nobody has
proven that we need a new police station as of this date,
and their storage area in their current building could
be better used for additional office space. If you added
that space to the rest of the unused space in the police
building, you could put the planner's office and the building
dept. together and give them both more space to work out
of and keep it all on the ground floor.
Oh yes! The
cost to do this would be very expensive!!! Not so if the
town's people and the board of selectman got together
and wanted to start getting government spending under
control. They could build the partitions themselves and
hire an electrician to do the wiring if that was mandated
by the State. Well, that would take care of one of the
phone company's floors; let's take a look at the other
floor.
The senior
center: this would provide the much needed space for the
seniors but, is it the right space? The cost as presented
earlier would be about $700,000 for that half of the building.
That figure is not too bad if you figure the square footage
and the cost of the land. But does this make sense? We
are going to spend $700,000 on the senior center that
has too steep grades for seniors to drive, difficult access
into the building, a layout that leaves egress from the
building troublesome, provides a septic system that at
this time has problems, and last but not least, will provide
a sterile asphalt environment to help us collect our retiring
thoughts. Imagine looking over parking lot #1,
#2,
#3
, #4,
or #5
and trying to look back at the wonderful life that Woodbury
has given all of us. Would someone please tell the voters
that what is easy might not be the right thing to do?!
 Would
someone do the math and figure out what kind of house
with land you could build for $700,000 of the taxpayer's
money? A one-story building on a flat piece of land, with
easy parking, good drinking water, and with a good setting
might make a more meaningful project that everyone could
support.
Now, one last
thing for all you big business men: what would be the
size of a facility that you could build for the seniors,
paying interest and principle, with the town's interest
rate, with a free 8 % escalating revenue fund starting
at $15,000 a year?
THE TOWN OF
WOODBURY RECIEVES $15,000 A YEAR IN TAXES FOR THE BUILDING
THAT WE ARE PROPOSING TO TAKE OFF THE TAX ROLLS BY BUYING
IT!
ARE WE DOING
THE RIGHT THING?
Please let's
do the right thing not the easy one!!!
- Duncan McDougall
84 Middle Road TPK
Woodbury, CT
|
