When I say we’re starting from scratch, I wish I were talking about biscuits. Unfortunately I am referring to an all too familiar subject: the on-again, off-again Starkville Police Department building.
This discussion goes back at least 20 years or more when we were looking at the donated old Walmart location.
According to those here during that time an alderman “submarined” that effort, and now it seems to be deja vu all over again.
Each time a plan has been formulated and moved along the path to completion, someone has killed it. From the Walmart turned bowling alley, to the Highway 25 bypass, to the Millsaps car dealership, to the corner of 389 and Highway 182. The problems cited have either been: The project was not in downtown, or it was too expensive, or it was a Taj Mahal that we don’t need.
In the most recent board of aldermen meeting, Chief Frank Nichols and architect Gary Shafer presented the financial estimates for two options for a police department building that should meet the city’s current needs.
One version was an interior-focused $3 million-plus product. The other has a $5.4 million price tag. The differences in the costs were a good bit of cosmetic exterior work and some additional interior improvements and a prisoner drop-off area (sally port). Either option meets the basic needs of a police department.
Alderman Perkins, speaking in his most elegant third-person manner, provided yet again an opportunity to sabotage our best chance of finally getting a police station underway.
He delivered a soliloquy on the matter and closed by saying he would vote for anything that gets the chief what he needs. The irony of that was the chief was presenting what he needs, but Roy didn’t seem to be buying it.
Alderman Perkins used such language as “whatever it takes to get there” and “quit talking about it and do something,” all of which sounded great if he hadn’t also said “suspend” the architect and we “don’t need to rush” and “build it from the ground up.” I pretty much got whiplash during his verbal stream of consciousness.
No Taj Mahal this, but a historic, downtown building with a virtually impenetrable outer structure and a high-tech, up-to-date interior. The best part is we already own it. That combination sounds like the perfect marriage for taxpayers and city leaders.
The hard part is over. The board authorized the $3 million worth of bonds for the basic version of the renovation and they are ready to be issued. There has not been the gnashing of teeth and public blowup seen in the past when the board authorized bonds, so the vocal minority and the silent majority must approve of moving forward.
We could be underway by summer and done by the next election. And Alderman Perkins says he will vote for the full 5.4 million as long as it makes the Chief happy. I am guessing the Chief will be happy if it gets done while he is this side of retirement age.
One board member questioned the value of improving the old city hall building.
The only way to support and maintain the existence of our meaningful, historic structures is to appreciate them and repurpose them. This is the model for keeping that idea alive.
This building is the old armory building and it has the bones and the skin and the location that make it worth keeping and updating. By keeping it, we keep a historic downtown structure intact, making it modern on the inside and preserving this bit of our architectural history. I think of it as a facelift and not a coffin.
Alderman Perkins is right about one thing. It is time to quit talking and just do it. All it takes at this point is for the board of aldermen to vote to issue the bonds and the building can be ready in 2017.
The up-shot of it is that we have bobbed for this apple multiple times and seem to simply keep on water-boarding ourselves. Mixed metaphor, but you get my drift.
Lynn Spruill, a former commercial airline pilot, elected official and city administrator owns and manages Spruill Property Management in Starkville. Her email address is [email protected].
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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