GF cops, firefighters, mosquito killers could get $5.8 million building
Grand Forks City Council members have disparaged it as too costly for cost-cutting times such as these, but it looks like the city's public safety gang could be getting its $5.8 million training center after all.The Service/Safety Standby Committee recommended the council fund it.
It's one of those decisions that's gotta be full of conflict for a fiscal hawk, which I think many council members have become, if not by nature then by public pressure. On the one hand, you want to cut taxes as much as you can. On the other, public safety is a core government function and you definitely want more of it. I'm counting mosquito control as public safety here because besides letting us enjoy our summers, they're keeping the West Nile Virus vector at bay.
Note that existing funds would likely pay for the training center. If the center were not built, the city could cut more taxes. So the argument here isn't whether taxpayers will pay more but whether they could pay less.
Anyway, I see that Council member Art Bakken, who said he's a fiscal hawk, took a pretty firm stance for public safety even though his colleagues were sort of wringing their hands. "I don't think any citizen in Grand Forks will complain about police, fire or mosquito control," he said. "If we're going to spend money on anything, if this doesn't qualify, I don't know what will."
I'm starting to like this guy more and more. He doesn't pontificate much, which means shorter council meetings, but when he says something, it's a pretty good, meaningful quote.
Still, even with public safety, you've gotta do some cost benefit analysis, which Council member Curt Kreun tried to do with the department heads.
There's a nice Powerpoint presentation by architect Lonnie Laffen that you can download here. (I'm running out of room on the Geocities storage site so I'm deleting that letter the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa got from Gov. John Hoeven from way back when. Anyone know a place to park all this material? Can't seem to do it on Blogger.com.)
To summarize what the department heads said, here's what the city would get for $5.8 million:
* A modern facility to store mosquito control chemicals. The current facility is rented and rent is going way up. It doesn't have fire sprinklers or good security. And worse of all, it doesn't have a containment system to keep spills from getting out of hand.
* Police and firefighters wouldn't have to go out of town to train as they do now. Chief John Packett said 10 to 15 percent of the cop force is away on training at any one time. We're talking about things like SWAT training.
Firefighters have a fire tower to rappel off of but Chief Pete O'Neill said the thing is 30 years old and not safe.
* Police and firefighters from around the region would get better training with a nearby facility. This would help pay for the center since users would pay a user fee.
* A new cop shop and fire station in the Industrial Park, which isn't all that close to existing stations.
* An empty Civic Center, where a lot of the public safety equipment is stored. The city is trying to attract a tenant for the center.
posted by Tu-Uyen at 10:11 PM
8 Comments:
Where is the proposed location? I'm too lazy to look it up in the Powerpoint and too impatient to wait for the story in the paper. You said something about the Industrial Park...is that where it would be?
Yes, it would be in the Industrial Park. I'm home now and I don't have the software to see the Powerpoint so I couldn't say what street. But it's land already owned by the city.
Good Tax Base creator for the Industrial Park?
The Park was created to attract "TAX PAYING" business not more Government shrines. The land may be owned by the City but the purpose was "TAX BASE" not "TAX DRAIN".
anonymous...this is a police and fire training facility - there will most likely be LOTS of noise (like gunfire, sirens,fire hoses, etc) going on out there. This is land already owned by the city which was set aside years ago as a future fire/police training facility and most likely a new fire station down the road. The city has numerous new "homeland security" purchases, such as a SWAT truck, bomb truck, and several pieces of fire dept equipment to protect from the elements and to store in an adequate facility. Also, the fact is that most of the businesses in the industrial park are already receiving tax breaks and not paying taxes...besides, the primary function of gov't is NOT NOT economic development, but PUBLIC SAFETY...get with it!
(wow...now I feel better!)
Also, the fact is that most of the businesses in the industrial park are already receiving tax breaks and not paying taxes
Whoa there cowboy. I think the reverse is true. Of the ones that the city has helped, LM and Amazon.com are leasing and Cirrus Design owns its own building and pays taxes. All the other ones, including the Herald's printing plant, pay taxes.
But, yes, public safety is the most important city function.
Ok, so I was ranting and may have gotten carried away...sorry. Let's put it this way instead. Most of the new businesses out there get at least a tax abatement. However, no price tag can be put on better trained police and firefighters.
Is rampant Crime and Fires the problem in Grand Forks or the lack of tax base?
Dave and Ben must either be cops, relatives of cops or worse...Firepeople.
Whoa, why all the hate? One might argue that the lack of serious crime and fire is a sign that public safety people have done their job. You wouldn't want to wait until the city burns to the ground and gangs roam the street to increase public safety funding.
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