Madison location is too expensive | LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Published 10:46 am Saturday, October 31, 2015

To the editor:

Voting against Proposition No. 1 is not about being against the police department or the municipal court. It is about good fiscal responsibility.

We do need a new police station and, while I’m not sold on the need for a new court or one in the same facility as the police department, I am not opposed to these, either. What I do oppose is a city government that puts its own convenience above common sense and good financial judgment.

The current location is too expensive, too small for growth in the future, and contaminated by harmful volatiles in an unknown, but apparently increasing, amount.

The city doesn’t have any clear plan how it will find the funds to pay for the cleanup, but wants to purchase the property regardless. Will it recoup the costs from the current owners?

The city hasn’t even gotten a price reduction and agreed to pay more than double the assessed value of the property even though it knew about the contaminants. The city is simply willing to spend any amount of money for this site, even though the upper Madison Avenue sites are cheaper, bigger, uncontaminated and closer to Highway 305 — and therefore closer to the citizens who need police help. Whether the site is closer to city hall is beside the pertinent point.

This proposition needs to be defeated so that the city will listen to its citizens and make a better, fiscally reasonable choice.

FRANC FISHER

Bainbridge Island