Holy God! Holy Cow! Holy Tamole! Holy S---! I can't believe that the new police station has increased by more than one-third in size, that the cost will be established by the bids, that no public discussion has been had as to how it will be paid for and that the losing bids will be compensated for their work on submitting bids.
I'd like to know how many forensic experts the police employ that would necessitate a forensic garage site and labs? An indoor shooting range - ah maybe. A cultural room with venting to allow traditional aboriginal pipe ceremonies? What about a chapel or temple to meet the needs of other groups? A gymnasium? Couldn't they work out a deal with the private sector for volume purchase memberships for police? Just how long do officers spend warming up police vehicles? I would have thought when the cars came in from the night shift they would be plenty warm enough for the day shift to use.
And I guess the Chief needed somewhere to park the new $350,000.00 Batmobile.
The biggest question is: Will this reduce crime in the city?
The Police Chief cannot proceed with this project without the sanction of council, as it is council that must provide the funds to pay for this dream. Yet I don't recall council having this discussion during budget debates.
We have an art gallery coming and the price on that project increased by $8 million a couple months back, the reason being planning for future needs, and the hole as not yet been dug. Now this. Where is the money coming from?
If this is about planning for the future, remember that the current plan was already adding on an additional 75,000 square feet to the current size of police facilities. In essence we are now actually adding 200,000 square feet to the current size. Perhaps we should wait until we have another 125,000 taxpayers to help pay the freight. Or start thinking about Satellite stations now and place them in the areas with the highest crime rate.
And in planning for the future, perhaps we should get a good old fashioned insane asylum and commit a few of out civic leaders.
Slow down, buckle up, stash the cell phone, don't jay walk, and don't spit or urinate in public. These are the criminals that will be helping to fund the project.
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I was blown away when I read all that this morning. I was astounded at the things our Chief was saying. Really, you need underground parking so that an officer doesn't have to wait 5 minutes for their car to warm up? Absolutely amazing.
ReplyDeleteI also can't believe that the losing bids are still going to receive compensation for their work. I am almost inclined to begin work on my own bid to submit. Give them a scaled down practical version and take a couple months of paid holidays to draw it up in the process.
Does anyone on counci have any concept of the money that they are committing us to spendings.
I was also surprised to see the Police Chief stating the added costs associated as fact given that City Council has not approved them let alone discussed them to date. This would definitely push the costs well above $100 million. Last I checked only $90 million has been budgeted for to date.
ReplyDeletebtw, the stipend to the losing bids is part and parcel of how design/build competitions work. The same process was used for the South Bridge, so I don't see that as an issue.
Sean S.,
ReplyDeleteIt is an issue. the use of a design build concept for this type of facility is bull. This building has specific structural program and design requirements and is meant to only house a police station. The reason design build made any sense on the bridge is because of the latitude one could give the contractors/designers on the physical design of the building.
This can't happen for such a stringent scope of work like forensic labs/jails etc. The city will need or should have already indicated what they expect in terms of quality and materials this limits the designer to what a difference in color?? The city has screwed up huge on going this way and other than the look of the building I doubt any of the real meat and potatoes items will very from one bid to the other. I will be interested in seeing if each proposal comes out to the public before being awarded. Hell for 150 thou way wouldn't someone put in a bid.
Wow, this thing make the Regina dome sound like a backyard garden shed. Talk about your "selfish pipe dreams" (with apologies to Mr. MacPherson)
ReplyDelete"I'd like to know how many forensic experts the police employ that would necessitate a forensic garage site and labs?"
ReplyDeleteI guess it would be better to do what we do now. Store evidence (automobiles) in a shed at the city yards. Of course once that shed is full (3-4 cars) then there is nowhere to store them. Who cares if the evidence gets contaminated? Prosecutors don't need evidence to get convictions.
Oh, wait....
Anon 9:08,
ReplyDeleteI have yet to hear any court official or officer or media member once question the City's handling of forensic evidence in terms of the storage of evidence prior to being examined. So really what you are clamoring about is a bunch of nonsense.
The RCMP have a forensic lab in the province, and I would think that it is prudent to at least ask the question how many forensic labs a Province of about a million people really needs?
Not saying the Mistress is right, but to nitpick that one aspect of the post with your condescending remarks shows your ignorance.
I for one can't believe the Chief is talking like he is to the media without having first conferred with Council (and if he has, that Council has permitted him to do so). I guess we can tag another 40 million onto the debt load prior to even having a bid in place. I imagine when all is said and done this police station will be well over the $200 million mark.
I really hope that Atch can get us to the magic billion dollar debt figure for a city before he leaves office. And if he doesn't, maybe we can build a gold plated Atch statue to make up the difference.
Record housing prices, soon to be sky rocketing property taxes and utilities to fund projects, city maintenance disregarded because all money is tied up in huge capital expenditure projects....a great time to be a Sakatonian
"I have yet to hear any court official or officer or media member once question the City's handling of forensic evidence in terms of the storage of evidence prior to being examined. So really what you are clamoring about is a bunch of nonsense. "
ReplyDelete--
You know why you don't hear anything?
Because when police recover a stolen car and there is nowhere secure to store it until fingerprints can be done, they simply don't bother. Because there is no point in collecting evidence that will get tossed as soon as the defence bring up how degraded those prints are after the car was stored outside in -35C, 50km winds & blowing snow.
And yes, sometimes the police do recover more vehicles than they have room to store. Then they have to "prioritize" which ones get processed and which ones don't.
So your saying that police are just in essence throwing out certain investigations because they would have to store cars outside in winter? Unless you are a cop speaking from first hand experience I doubt that is true, and if it is true then you should be speaking out elsewhere than as anon on a blog
ReplyDelete