They know where it will be, how much it will cost, exactly what they want in it, and the City Mothers were seen in a fabric shop picking out curtain material. It will require at least $37,500,000 dollars, probably ours, and a way to pay for it will magically appear after the Finance Director realizes Council is serious about this. Best estimates for repairs is about 17 million.We have not heard what will happen to Old City Hall. It could be retrofitted and made suitable for future city departments necessary for additional paper work as Obama’s Social System grows. You can’t just stop government but it could be disastrous to allow employees and taxpayers to continue treading those weakening floors; what to do in the meantime, limit the weight of personnel? One thing to consider is purchasing an abandoned JfCom building in North Suffolk where they really wanted to be until Gates closed the gate on that rapidly expanding empire. You will be proud of your new City on Washington Street, soon the place to be. Think about it...new Social Services Center, new Police precinct, the coming Fairgrounds Apartments, and now a new City Hall with a guaranteed one stop shop for small business entrepreneurs. Are you for repairing the building or building a new one?Friday, September 24, 2010
NEW CITY HALL IS A DONE DEAL
They know where it will be, how much it will cost, exactly what they want in it, and the City Mothers were seen in a fabric shop picking out curtain material. It will require at least $37,500,000 dollars, probably ours, and a way to pay for it will magically appear after the Finance Director realizes Council is serious about this. Best estimates for repairs is about 17 million.We have not heard what will happen to Old City Hall. It could be retrofitted and made suitable for future city departments necessary for additional paper work as Obama’s Social System grows. You can’t just stop government but it could be disastrous to allow employees and taxpayers to continue treading those weakening floors; what to do in the meantime, limit the weight of personnel? One thing to consider is purchasing an abandoned JfCom building in North Suffolk where they really wanted to be until Gates closed the gate on that rapidly expanding empire. You will be proud of your new City on Washington Street, soon the place to be. Think about it...new Social Services Center, new Police precinct, the coming Fairgrounds Apartments, and now a new City Hall with a guaranteed one stop shop for small business entrepreneurs. Are you for repairing the building or building a new one?
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Perish the thought. There will not be any release of any information to repair the existing city hall even if a FOIA is submitted.
Linda Johnson is following in the footsteps of Chesapeake's former Mayor Bill Ward. Suffolk's Taj Mahal cannot be an existing building like the failing SCCA. No, it has to be a big, gleaming, spacious and very expensive structure with ample room to grow city offices like in Princess Ann section of Virginia Beach. There is no doubt only one location would suit her majesty's overly inflated ego and spendthrift habit. That location is wherever she and her friends own the property in the North end of the city. I hope she and council are closely watching the prosecution of the Bell California officials.
What does Mike Duman think about all of this?????????
It does seem to be clear that the process of this huge investment will be clouded by the administration to keep us all guessing about what is going on, or will happen. I have lost all faith in this administration and how they do, or rather don't do things. Suffolk has not suffered so much and will suffer more, until this administration is thrown out on their ears.
This kind of project demands and needs the involvement of the citizens and they have already been cut out in the site selection prcess, the most important issue invloved. Does anyone expect that they will allow comment about anything else or any other issue? This is the time to take a stand and demand more access and involvement, just like Ms. Linda is demanding about the secret happenings of JFCOM. She has cried about the need for access and openness in the JFCOM situation, but then closes the door for her actions on her council! Sound Right?!
Lets see. It looks like there is going to be a very large complex that will become available that has lots of floor space that just happens to be up on the north side of Suffolk. We all know that the mayor wants the new city hall to be located there. I suggest to save ALL Suffolkians higher taxes or applying to sell bonds to finance this 37.5 million dollar Taj Mahal, that the city and the council make an offer on the JFCOM property and turn that into their new office complex.It has plenty of parking and it has gates and security booths that can be manned by the Sherrifs men to protect them all from irate criminal type taxpayers.But then again this idea just might not be good enough for the elites of Suffolk but could be just right for the taxpayers. However when have they done whats best and or right for the city and the taxpayers.
You want confirmation that City Government doesn't care how much of a crushing tax burden they place on local property owners and taxpayers as long as they get what they want? Just watch how this plays out. The only reason they need more room is that they keep expanding their employee roles --and at a rate that has continued to outpace Suffolk population growth for over a decade! Suffolk needs to trim municipal employment roles by at least 20%--not build more and bigger buildings to house them--and stick the public with the check, Thank you very much!
From a SNH opinion piece.
"One might expect that a City Council truly committed not just to the letter of the law regarding open meetings, but also to its spirit, would be sensitive to the appearance that such a retreat might encourage. And considering Suffolk’s reputation for controlling the information that citizens receive, one might expect an even higher level of sensitivity to actions that might exacerbate the negative image.
If Suffolk City Council members really want their constituents to believe that they love the disinfectant power of sunshine, they’ll give some long thought to the matter before they decide to hold another semi-public retreat next year."
It's called "open and transparent"
Tap, tap, tap hello Mike and Caroline are you there? Do you agree about spending tens of millions? How about open and transparent government at counci retreats and EDA meetings? Are you listening, do you have an opinion or are you just hiding from us?
If the floors to my house were sagging I would have them propped up and if there were cracks in the walls I would fill them in or cover them up and if the doors would not close I would trim them off to fit so they would close. I surely would not tear my house down and build a new one.
I suspect that Mike and Caroline will remin mum on the city hall issue until after the election. Yes its going to be an open and transparent council. Now they have a chance to speak out but dont.All we hear are the crickets chirping. Does someone have a clothes pin? The next question is what golf course will be the meeting held at between Linda and her cronies can invite Mike and Caroline to have a sit down to "discuss" matters.
The old Health Building is being snapped up for 1.5 million because of sufficient traffic to almost any business successful. But who is holding out, buyers or the owner of the old Lowes on Godwin. It is big enough to be a post office and plenty of parking. Who really wants to drive downtown and could also replace the P.O. in Chuckatuck.
Here's my two cents worth, based on limited information. It is my understanding that the current municipal building requires approximately 3 million dollars worth of renovation to address safety issues. It is also apparently too small to accommodate the city administration and majority of services. This facility is about 50 years old; therefore, a new center appears to make sense to me.
One of the issues I have with city government is that it needs to be more accommodating when interacting with the public. You should not need a GPS to locate related government services. I would advocate for a central location, staffed with qualified individuals, that would assist citizens with their interactions among city agencies. In addition, I am not in favor of leased space when it is possible to utilize current facilities.
I have heard, not officially, that a site on W.Washington owned by the city could be used for the new building.
I would be in favor of this location and the construction of a building that could support the future needs of our citizens for the next fifty years. No need to build something that will be insufficient in a short period of time. It doesn't need to be extravagant, just be able to accommodate current agencies and allow for future growth.
We must be fiscally prudent and consider all options, being especially cognizant of all resources the city now owns, and can utilize, without unnecessary spending.
These are my thoughts at this time. I don't have all the facts nor do I know all the options. I can promise you that this issue, as well as any other, will be studied by me objectively and independently and after assimilating all available information I will make a decision.
The site of the former Obici Hospital would make a great location for city office expansion someday in the future. The existing building on Market Street needs repairs. Fine fix it and renovate the interior. Across the street there are other city offices including the new police station. I see no rational whatsoever in constructing an entirely new building in these very hard economic times. It's also political suicide even if those on the EDA "front" the funding. Especially those in that authority yearning for higher office. The citizens know who in the end will foot the bill.
The strip referred to on West Washington is the former location of two converted houses I believe used by Public Works. The lot is small and encumbered so as to inhibit the construction of a larger taller building. There would likely need the condemnation of adjoining buildings and the associated acqusition and demolition expense. There is also the loss of precious parking spaces that an expensive elevated garage placed somewhere close by so city workers do not physicaly exhaust themselves walking to work or twist and/or pull a muscle and go on worker's comp.
The city already ownes the "too big to fail" Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts building and should consider it for temporary offices while renovations and expansion of the Market Street building is undertaken.
City Hall is falling down...falling down...falling down. City Hall is falling down on our fair lady.
So far Mike, your opinion right now is worth about two cents to this voter.You seem to be in favor based on your "limited knowledge" you are ready to spend and tax. If the JFMCO is to close, would you support the idea of the city in making a viable offer on that complex in becoming the home for the city? Lets not forget the issue of supporting and promoting "downtown". Hard decisions that have to be made, one needs to be more informed and not find an excuse for not knowing. I know, I know its not as if the present adminstration has been open and transparent. The question is will you actually push and promote for an open and transparent council publicly or will you become a member of the status quo?
Would you care to weigh in on the porn email scandal. If (being sarcastic) there are rules that govern one's use of city computers that they have been violated do you think that there should be a zero tolerance policy? There is a zero tolerance policy when it comes to kids and the things that they do at school. Shouldnt so called adults have to live by the same type of thinking and relevant rules?
In all fairness Mike I present the same questions and commentary to Caroline Martin since she too must have had rules in place while at the hospital and surely I would think that you as a business owner have some type of rules that your employees must abide by.So with that being said you both should have an opinion on this issue.I would be most interested in hearing those opinions.
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