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| "I once delivered the newspaper here -- so I think the Town should restore it !" |
Approximately three years ago, the School Committee concluded that the building was unfit for its employees, or members of the public and voted to "evacuate" the property and consolidate the administrative staff in available space at the High School. Shortly afterward, the building was turned over to the Board of Selectmen for disposal or reuse.
After the BOS concluded the building wasn't even appropriate to store files in, it was proposed to Town Meeting that the building be liquidated as surplus.
After some overly dramatic grandstanding and completely irrelevant commentary by the usual suspects -- with no concern and/or grasp of the municpal budget situation, Town Meeting decided this "dumpy little building" (as one speaker described it) should be retained..
Remember, this is a Town that has both the Police and Fire Headquarters buildings perched in a flood zone at the edge of a marsh on the far northeastern corner of Town. This is also a Town that has municipal offices spread across at least six locations -- despite spending $3.5 million to renovate Town Hall (which actually reduced the available office space!).
More importantly, this is a Town with approximately $25 million in unfundable deferred maintenance --- not counting the projected $25-50 million dollars needed to renovate/restore/repair the Wing School.
And we're wasting time talking about the Clark-Hadded Home for Wayward Rodents?
It's amusing that this year that, despite the usual grandstanding, the sale of the Deacon Eldred House virtually flew through Town Meeting. One of the Selectmen is quoted in the CCT this AM that they "did it right" this time and got the Historic Commission "on board" first.
The Deacon Eldred sale would relieve taxpayers of the burden of maintenance costs, generate some sale revenue, and (unless its purchased by a non-profit) even generate some useful tax revenue. But, probably more pragmatically, a sale would prevent the Deacon Eldred from looking like the Clark-Haddad.
It's too bad nobody thought of that last year.
7 comments:
If a historic preservation restriction had been included in the plan to sell CH last year, I think it would have been a different story. Let's hope we don't waste more taxpayer dollars coming up with a rational solution for CH. If we could add up all the staff dollars wasted following up and coordinating all the "great ideas" out there, for some reason, the town paid staff are obligated to help with, maybe we could get some of the big jobs done. However with the top policy makers make up changing every year I doubt it.
As I see it, our assests are in such disrepair that all of these buildings are of equal priority. Consider this.....is the fire station more important than the Wing School? No. Is the Wing School more important than the Police Station? No Is the Police Station more important than the EXISTING library? No......and so on. This is one hell of a situation this town and department heads have put us in. Bob....insert picture here.
It hardly fair to blame the department heads solely. The political leaders of the BOS and Fin Com had been holding a pretty tight reign on spending over the past 10 - 15 years. You can argue they had too, but as the saying goes where capital maintenance and improvement is concerned, "pay me now or pay me more later." A lousy $500,000 a year toward Capital improvements for at least a decade, maybe more, hardly puts a dent in it as we can now see. Then you have the taxpayers and citizens not willing to pay for improvements. The cry of "highest taxes" on the Cape and political gamesmanship have hampered good planning to a great degree as well. But it is what it is and now we have to make smarter planning decisions. The reality may be though that the taxpayer just won't support much. It's pretty negative out there and why shouldn't it be. We need to invest in our community now.
11:29 --- I agree. We can't blame the dept heads for executing the budget given to them by the elected officials and voters of the Town.
11:04 -- I will not lose any sleep if the CH Bldg gets leveled. IMHO, the building is old - not historic. Gravity will do the job for us at the rate the transaction is moving.
OK, I concede that all department heads should not be painted with such a broad brush. HOWEVER, mismanagement does exist if one were to take a peek.
I doubt it will be leveled. I think we will end of spending valuable time and money discussing what should be done and in the end loose money for the town. That's what I see coming down the pike. Politics instead of good practice and policy.
The Truth Maker would with Bob on the building itself. It is old, not historic in nature.
The actual name is still being used by the American Legion Post in honor off the two men who died at basic training, while getting ready for combat.
A plank on the board walk, also pays tribute of the two men, as well as an American Legion baseball team. That is also not to mention that in the center of Sandwich, stands another memorial to both men.
The building cannot be sold unless town meeting gives the approval and it has nothing to do with the board of selectmen in regards to why they have suggested to town meeting to sell it may be the best at this time.
Those into the historical facets of saving buildings need to apply more information, as to why it should be saved at all and not sold and placed on the tax rolls. Sandwich simply cannot afford to wait any longer on making this eye sore go away
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