THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609250119
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letters
LENGTH: 52 lines
I have known every member of the City Council, to different degrees, for many years all the way back to the days of the Norfolk County Board of Supervisors, and I sincerely believe that each and every one has tried to do what he or she felt was the absolute best for Chesapeake in every decision they made.
That's why it's hard for me to understand how our new jail will cost us $119,496.86 per inmate. Allowing for an 8-by-10-foot cell, the minimum legal size of a bedroom, you would need about 25,500 square feet and allowing 5,000 for staff you would need 30,500 square feet. This equates to $1,245 per square foot that we are spending to build this jail, based on minimum needed space. Even allowing for a moderate amount of over-build, we are paying far too much for this jail.
To pay back the $38 million will cost Chesapeake taxpayers approximately $12,700 per day, plus $12,000 per day for operation and maintenance, for a total of about $25,000 per day. How can anyone justify this cost?
We cannot change the jail, but we can take a hard look at the extreme cost of the convention center we are about to build. Do we need to continue spending many times more than we can afford to build and maintain public buildings?
One City Council member, when explaining the convention center to me, stated that a Norfolk City Council member told him that the Norfolk Convention Center was a bigger loser than our purposed center, so we should build ours at all costs.
One of the hotel owners who spoke to council in favor of the convention center, builds his facilities without any meeting rooms. Why does he then expect the taxpayers to build and maintain what he refuses to build for himself?
Henry Pace, candidate for mayor in 1988, reminded us at every meeting, ``We must be good stewards of the public's money.'' I ask you: Should a building that will only profit the hotel industry cost the taxpayers $5,000 per day? How much will the convention center overruns cost? Every construction project Chesapeake has shoved through as a lease-purchase arrangement has ended up costing many times what it should have cost. What will the new court building cost?
We are going broke fast. Isn't improving roads more important than a convention center?
City Council, please, please stop this overspending now before it is too late. We can build the same public facilities for much less and let the hotel industry build their own facilities.
Wilson Garland
Harding Drive by CNB