Laserfiche WebLink
41089 <br />■I <br />MAYOR'S ARTICLE <br />CITY FACILITY <br />Many of you have been aware for sometime of discussions to do <br />something with our out of date and inadequate city facilities. <br />For those of you who have recently visited our facilities you <br />must marvel at the fact that your Orono staff ate even able to <br />their jobs, given the conditions within which they work. <br />I d-?«;'t think many of you and I certainly know myself would not <br />allow my employees to work in these kinds of conditions on a <br />longterm basis. Not only ate our employees having to work in <br />unproductive, cramped facilites, but we have a Public Works <br />facility where people have to work under vehicles and work in <br />puddles of water or cold unheated ground in wood sheds. Our <br />Police Department has to use an eye bolt and handcuffs as a <br />holding facility. These are just a few examples of the shambles <br />to which that we have allowed our facilities to degrade. Some <br />people have suggested that a bit of fixing up here and there <br />could assist us, but I think we have gotten to the point that the <br />most cost effective solution is to start over again and do an <br />entirely new facility. This would not be a five or ten year <br />cure. At present the City has utilized an architectural firm to <br />determine the amount of space requirements we have without being <br />superfluous. We are looking at a total cost for a new City Hall, <br />Police facility and Public Works facility for a total of just <br />about $3.5 million. The financing of this would translate, as we <br />estimate it now, into a 1 to 2% increase in your tax bill. <br />Currently out primary site that is being explored is at the <br />southwest corner of Old Crystal Bay Road and Highway 12 across <br />from the Orono schools and it is a site that would not present <br />problems for neighbors to any great extent through the 24 hour <br />operation of the Police Department, the 8 hour traffic of the <br />City Hall not the type of activity which can be around the clock <br />of the Public Works and their heavy equipment that would be found <br />in the other locations. It may not seem popular to do, but we <br />think we have come up with the plan that is in the longterm in <br />the best interest of the City providing adequate facilities from <br />which to operate. These ate not plush facilities by any means, <br />unless you compare what we have with what we need. <br />We ate intending to have an Open House of our current facilities <br />and plans and costs for proposed facilities at an informational