[Yes... I saw Spamalot at the Mount Baker Theater. Ni!]
There will be a public meeting on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Whatcom County Courthouse.
I want to talk about one specific aspect of this proposed jail.
The land that the proposed jail will be sited upon.
There are about nine sites that the County has considered for the proposed jail. The site that the County likes the best is Site Four.
It is owned by Ralph Black.
The site is about 72 acres, and the estimate for what the County would pay for the land hovers around $4,000,000, give or take a sheckel or two.
Now understand that even though the County does not have the money or a funding source for the money to pay for the proposed Jail, the County does have the money to buy the land for the proposed jail.
My understanding is that once the Draft Evironmental Impact Statement is adopted officially, the County Council can vote to buy the land at the site of their choice, and the sight of choice right now is Site Four. Mr Black's parcel of land.
Once Mr. Black gets paid for his land, he acquires no direct interest in what happens to the land after the sale.
It's not his problem that we can't afford the $150 million dollar complex to build on the land. He's just trying to make a sale. He's just a squirrel trying to get a nut. It's a tough economic climate to sell land right now, and he's just trying to get by in this climate.
Well, he's not alone. So are the rest of us.
If the County buys this land, the County and the public at large is out about $4 million. And still won't have a new jail to show for it. And we still wont have a clue as to how we will fund the proposed $150 million jail. Or how we will come up with the estimated $50 million per year operating costs for the new jail.
I don't know why the County wants to spend millions of dollars of County money to buy a big chunk of land for a jail we clearly can't afford.
But if the County does make such a purchase, then that's the County's problem. That's our problem. Not Mr. Black's problem.
I'm not going to grudge Mr. Black his desire to sell property for what the market will bear.
But I do grudge the County even contemplating making such a large purchase when that purchase doesn't serve the needs of the public at large.
Mr. Black is a private citizen who owes no unusual duty of care to the citizens of Whatcom County. He just happens to own one of nine proposed sites for a jail this County clearly can't afford to build.
On the other hand, the elected officials of Whatcom County, the Executive and the Council, have a fiduciary duty of care to the citizens of Whatcom County. And pissing away a few million dollars for huge tracts of land for a project that we clearly have no funding to support is not meeting that duty of care, in my opinion.
I encourage all citizens to go to the Thursday evening meeting and say "Ni!" to the Council and Executive until they render unto us a proper and proportional jail proposal.
And a shrubbery.
A nice one.
There will be a public meeting on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Whatcom County Courthouse.
I want to talk about one specific aspect of this proposed jail.
The land that the proposed jail will be sited upon.
There are about nine sites that the County has considered for the proposed jail. The site that the County likes the best is Site Four.
It is owned by Ralph Black.
The site is about 72 acres, and the estimate for what the County would pay for the land hovers around $4,000,000, give or take a sheckel or two.
Now understand that even though the County does not have the money or a funding source for the money to pay for the proposed Jail, the County does have the money to buy the land for the proposed jail.
My understanding is that once the Draft Evironmental Impact Statement is adopted officially, the County Council can vote to buy the land at the site of their choice, and the sight of choice right now is Site Four. Mr Black's parcel of land.
Once Mr. Black gets paid for his land, he acquires no direct interest in what happens to the land after the sale.
It's not his problem that we can't afford the $150 million dollar complex to build on the land. He's just trying to make a sale. He's just a squirrel trying to get a nut. It's a tough economic climate to sell land right now, and he's just trying to get by in this climate.
Well, he's not alone. So are the rest of us.
If the County buys this land, the County and the public at large is out about $4 million. And still won't have a new jail to show for it. And we still wont have a clue as to how we will fund the proposed $150 million jail. Or how we will come up with the estimated $50 million per year operating costs for the new jail.
I don't know why the County wants to spend millions of dollars of County money to buy a big chunk of land for a jail we clearly can't afford.
But if the County does make such a purchase, then that's the County's problem. That's our problem. Not Mr. Black's problem.
I'm not going to grudge Mr. Black his desire to sell property for what the market will bear.
But I do grudge the County even contemplating making such a large purchase when that purchase doesn't serve the needs of the public at large.
Mr. Black is a private citizen who owes no unusual duty of care to the citizens of Whatcom County. He just happens to own one of nine proposed sites for a jail this County clearly can't afford to build.
On the other hand, the elected officials of Whatcom County, the Executive and the Council, have a fiduciary duty of care to the citizens of Whatcom County. And pissing away a few million dollars for huge tracts of land for a project that we clearly have no funding to support is not meeting that duty of care, in my opinion.
I encourage all citizens to go to the Thursday evening meeting and say "Ni!" to the Council and Executive until they render unto us a proper and proportional jail proposal.
And a shrubbery.
A nice one.
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