10-22-1990 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MAYOR'S ARTICLE CITY FACILITY Many of you have been aware for sometime of discussion^ to do something with our out of date and inadequate city facilities. For those of you who have recently visited our facilities you must marvel at the fact that your Orono staff are even able to perform their jobs, given the conditions within which they work. I do not think many of you and I certainly know myself would not allow my employees to work in these kinds of conditions on a longterm basis. Not only are our employees having to work in unproductive, cramped facilities, but we have a Public Works facility were people have to work under vehicles and work in puddles of water on cold unheated ground in wood sheds. O-^r Police Department has to use an eye bolt and handcuffs £*s a holding facility. These are just a few examples of the shambles to which we have allowed our facilities to degrade. Some people have suggested that a bit of fixing up here and there could assist us, but I think we have gotten to the point that the most cost effective solution is to start over again and do an entirely new facility. This would not be a five or ten year cure. At present the City has utilized an architectural firm to determine the amount of space requirements we have without being superfluous. We are looking at a total cost for a new City Hall, Police facility and Public Works facility for a total of just about $3.C millioa. The fincinciny of this would translate, as we estimate it now, into a 1 to 2% increase in your tax bill. In April we, as a Council, submitted 8 names apiece for a Citizen Advisory Task Force on facilities. From this group 18 persons were selected at random to give a good cross section of the community. They worked during May thru August meeting ^ times. They reveiwed issues of need, site, architectural design and cost. They presented to us their preliminary report at a Council worksession held with them on August 23rd. Their recommendation, without descent, was for a site on Highway 12 and Old Crystal Bay Road opposite the schools and that the current site in Crystal Bay be used for a park. Their reasons for this included: - ConipaLibdlity with surrounding land uses and did not intrude on peoples homes