Lightner Center back on the table? Some City Council members hate new buildings.

By all means, the City Council should look for ways to protect the citizens’ tax dollars. Makes perfect sense. Except when it doesn’t make sense.

One can’t help but think that council members Bonner Gaylord and Russ Stephenson are simply not going to support any sort of facility upgrade for public servicemen and women. (< See what we did there?)

The previous plan called for a property tax increase as way to help get the project up in the air. That never goes over well. Now Russell Allen, city manager, has found a way to do it without raising property taxes. Great. But yes, Mr. Gaylord and Stephenson, at some point, taxpayers will need to be tapped in some way, shape or form to build the building. That’s how city projects get done. Especially ones that could contribute so positively to the city’s image.

Have you visited the current, but now empty, police headquarters? Mike Brady says its an outdated design. It’s cramped, old, broken and sits in a pit. It’s the architectural equivalent of a nose wart. It looks like it was sat upon. No offense to the previous designer, of course.

The long-term financing plan continues to make sense, as there exists very little evidence that interest rates are going to go anywhere in the next few years, especially by 2012 and 2014, when the city would take on the financing.

To look at it practically, why not encourage new development for the sake of the city? It’s a good looking building and is destined to drastically improve the efficiency of our police, fire and medical emergency operations. Certainly it makes more sense to operate out of disparate properties sprawled throughout the city? Yeah, that’s efficient.

911 Operator: “911 what’s your emergency?”
Caller: (whispering) “There’s an intruder in my home!”
911 Operator: “Are you located within the city limits?”
Caller: (whispering, confused) “Yes. So what? Send the police.”
911 Operator: “Give us a half-hour.”