As many of you are concerned about our pool, around 47 minutes into the meeting, Conceptual Design Concepts and Aquatic Consulting Engineers gave their presentation on their "schemes." And everything presented was a scheme. I have to say, they worked hard to get every scenario covered other than fixing what we have now.
The County's penny sales tax was to be used for roadway surfaces, bridges, drainage improvements, canals, park amenities and government buildings as well as half of it going to public schools. Tuesday night, the seed was planted by the assistant city manager to use our penny sales tax (estimated at around $24 million over ten years) for our beach but he was quickly reminded they were not there to discuss financing of any "scheme." The city doesn't want the cat out of the bag quite yet--conniving and maneuvering with a plan to grab this cash.
IS EVERYONE NUTS? We don't want further commercialization of our beach park and we certainly don't want the cost.
Beach Park Presentation this link is provided because no one can figure out what in the heck this presentation was all about other than to entice staff and the commission to agree to one of the schemes or a combination thereof to spend millions upon millions at our beach. And no where did I see our present casino that we spent $6 million to rebuild.
Conceptual Design Concepts--(not their fault they got roped into designing these outrageous SCHEMES.) There were six different "schemes" (can't use that word enough) and these figures are in multi-MILLIONS:"
- SCHEME A--$14,513,982
- SCHEME B--$18,161,285
- SCHEME C--$18,472,612
- SCHEME D--$31,257,275
- SCHEME E--$41,201,101
- SCHEME F--$59,015,031 (this one includes a 4 story parking garage and a hotel on a public/private partnership)
We can dream big and what we dream may not even be close to what we can afford or actually need. We already spent $11 million just a few years ago. $5 million of it was from a Recreation Bond from the County that took us 10 years to pay off and we have many huge debt obligations outstanding as well as the 30 year, $40 million general bond obligation that every property owner owes for road infrastructure. And now the city is talking about big bucks to spend at our electric utility, needing another 138kv tie-line.
Fiscal responsibility is what's needed for our poor city...keep that in mind elected officials and city manager. The only commissioner who showed the least bit of responsibility or concern was Scott Maxwell. The rest went along, listening to the presentation and the dreams/schemes, as if they had some secret knowledge that the city had won the damn Powerball.
8 comments:
What is this city thinking? Stop it already. Get f**king real.
Where can we see the results of the pool charette?
At least they pay their employees well and give excellent benefits.
Most of the folks who attended the charette were under the assumption that the city would be doing something over there. As Scott Maxwell said, citizen input should have been clearly identified in their presentation. It was totally ignored. 150 residents attended the charette in April. There is no published report on the outcome of that charette.
However, I would assume that most people attending were giving their wish lists and not considering costs or even why the city wanted to change everything.
How about lowering our taxes instead of using the penny tax revenue for some questionable and intrusive construction on our fully developed beach.
Our taxes have been raised by the increased sales tax we pay with our purchases so it will be equitable and nice for our commission to give us relief rather than spend our money like drunken sailors commercializing and cementing our beach park.
What the hell is going on???? The beach is DONE. If they lay one finger on our beach -- and that means the ENTIRE piece of municipal land out on the barrier island -- they are going to get their butts sued. The DEED was very clear. That land belongs to the PEOPLE. Forever! Leave it alone!!!!!
Mike and sheep, please just repair our pool and get it opened.
@9:38pm - The beach complex is falling apart and needs to be addressed, not just the pool. There is no basis whatsoever for a suit against the city.
And to be clear - the beach CAN be sold, or leased for a period of 20 years or more, with a majority vote of the electors of the City. It's right there in the Charter. The CM read it and then contradicted himself saying it couldn't for political reasons.
Here come the signs!
Post a Comment