The Starkville Board of Aldermen has slowed down the Cadence train, but it remains on the tracks despite all the evidence that it should be derailed.
Some of the Aldermen are asking some of the right questions about the costs. Others seem not to care what the answers are, but are ready to vote now. The puzzling thing is that those who are ready to vote for purchasing this white elephant are going to be the very ones who will refuse to fund it when it comes time to vote for the inevitable tax increase required to pay for and then operate it.
Chief Nichols was pointed in his plans when he interviewed for the chief’s position. He said he wanted to add substations around the community as part of his growth plan. He also wants 10 more officers, a significant expense. Those are ambitious plans, plans that need cars, iPads, people and smaller, dispersed spaces — not bricks and mortar. Those progressive and ambitious plans will be scuttled by the purchase of a budget-buster of a building.
As a Starkville taxpayer, I would much rather pay for 10 more officers on our streets than have a make-do police building as the great symbolic physical presence of our police force.
We can’t afford to make the same mistake we made on the Sportsplex. The Park Commission represented it could fund the bonds with sales-tax dollars, but it forgot to plan for annual operations. We are reaping the results of this poor planning as we contribute an additional $100,000-plus annually to Parks so they can pay their bills. That will be the same issue for this building.
Specific cost estimates haven’t been provided. According to a report presented to the Board of Aldermen, the Cadence building is going to need a $50,000 roof within the next five years and $4,000 will be needed just to figure out the extent of repair needed for a retaining wall. The utilities will go from approximately $42,000 to $84,000 annually. Maintaining the landscaping is going to be an additional cost.
We don’t yet have hard numbers to convert this bank building into a serviceable police building. Those should be forthcoming, but guaranteed it will take in the neighborhood of a million dollars to meet the basic needs of armory, dispatch, command center, sally port, etc.
The choice isn’t the Cadence building or nothing. We have the existing historical structure that is city hall. At least with that plan, we won’t have to worry about landscaping or a retaining wall. The building is built like an armory, wait … it is a former armory. That should certainly address any security issues.
And if we designate it as an historical structure our resident historical expert, Michelle Jones, says there are likely grant funds available for improvements that would be on top of the $1.3 million already scheduled for the renovation.
The Cadence building is reported to be 39,000 square feet but only 28,000 of it is usable space. Cadence is a grand building built by a bank to impress customers. That is to say the usable space is inefficient, to the point a bank doesn’t want it and the city can’t afford it. The utility costs tell the tale.
Cadence doesn’t need that huge building any longer because the future is trending to on-line banking. The city doesn’t need it for many other reasons.
The Cadence building is an office building with a vault, pure and simple. At 28,000 square feet, it is still 4,000 more square feet than was projected to be needed for police future growth.
A renovated city hall will more than triple the space for the police department at 22,000 square feet. Using the existing plan for city hall, the police department will have as much space as the new city hall designed to house all of the remaining city departments.
The Cadence option will increase our annual operational costs by anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 depending on the course we choose.
The Starkville taxpayer shouldn’t have to serve as the printing press for the money that will be needed to pay for and maintain this political folly.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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