Watch out ... It's Pie in the Sky !!

There must be something in the water around here (besides what has already traced back to the MMR !).

Years ago, somebody recognized that the Police and Fire headquarters were under-sized, slowly sliding into the marsh, and susceptible to being washed out to sea if The Big One ever comes.  A study was done, land was earmarked and then ... somebody got distracted.

We've built school buildings -- an unavoidable and necessary task.  (This is where many people will grumble and chant "We wouldn't have this problem if we didn't have to build those Goddamn schools for kids that moved here from Over The Bridge!")  BUT -- we got distracted when it came time to provide the money  to properly maintain them.  Which is why we're chatting about a $15-30 million repair bill for the Wing --  (See the BOS presentation slides here)

We spent over $3 million to renovate a Town Hall that now holds less employees than the pre-renovation building.  The renovated building does have a second floor auditorium.  BUT, so don't the 4 large school buildings we already own, and already pay to heat, and light, and (sort of) maintain.  AND, the schools all have sufficient parking and decent septic systems -- something Town Hall does not have.  We continue to maintain several satellite town office buildings to handle the departmental overflow.  We even recently increased the number of town office buildings by moving the Rec Dept into a lovely lodge facility overlooking the water (a building originally bought to provide recreational opportunities and potential revenue.)

Many hours have been spent Studying and discussing a $14 million library in South Sandwich.  Many fewer hours have been spent discussing the fact that the Library can't afford the building it already has and have had to reduce operating hours this year to save money.  The Library is a huge asset to the Town and I LIKE the library -- but I'm not sure how we would pay to operate another library -- even if we could figure out a way to pay to build it!  (Somebody suggested the new Library was a actually a great idea -- that way when historians wrote the story about how the Police and Fire Departments fell into the marsh, we'd have someplace to put the book!)

The Capital Planning Committee came up with a list of some $26 million in assorted repairs and upgrades to buildings that have not been maintained for decades.  That list is on a shelf somewhere.

Now, folks are captivated by talk of a new Boardwalk that will start in the Village (behind the Town Hall Annex that we can't afford to bring into current building code compliance) run across the Marsh towards the Police and Fire Headquarters (same compliance problem!) through Town Neck and over to the Marina -- to gaze upon the probably-soon-to-be-closed power plant.  $50,000 of Community Preservation Funds may soon be "invested" in planning this adventure and only an additional $3 -5 million are estimated to be needed to finish it.  I can't imagine how this project could generate "real" economic development -- unless you owned the lumberyard!  ("Hey, Ethel!, Pack-up the kids -- we're drivin' down to Sandwich to walk on their wooden sidewalk!  I'll even buy you a large coffee at Mary Lou's !!").  Actually, maybe another Boardwalk is a good idea -- since the one we already have has been condemned as unsafe.

I'm sensing a theme.  Somebody needs to be willing to stick their neck out and start kicking some ass!  No more gathering consensus and community input.  No more sacred cows -- like Nike says -- "Just Do it!".