A casualty of the parking war was my sanity when I think how much time and effort ( = money) was put into debating this issue. The only real question was the answer to the question, "Who had the right to make the decision?".
In the recent past when Bennett St. was used as the Ford Annex. Crystal Foods leased a little portion of the parking lot which they had fenced off and used for parking. In return they paid the $1000 a year in taxes for the property taxes. Good deal for us and it saved them the hassle of finding the change to feed the meters.
Crystal Foods was bought out by Seacrest and they want to continue the arrangement. Seems like a no brainer.
No brains is the operative phrase. LSC member Donna Coppola raises her concern that since the LSC already paid $29,000 (that's right 29 with a K) for a study to determine if the Bennett St. location was a suitable place for the relocation of the school department offices and if that happened would there be adequate parking.
She was assured that there was going to be enough parking. Both Dr. Latham and Mayor Kennedy said that they had physically walked over the land. The lease was to be worded in such a way that if the LSC ever needed use of the land then the leased land would revert back to the committee. Just think, if we all could be lawyers life would be so simple.
What I want to know, "Who thought it was a good idea to spend that amount of money on such a study?" I know it is a serious move and does require some serious thought. But there are some pretty educated people running the school department who probably could have analyzed the situation and not had to rely on outside brain power to come up with what should have been a foregone conclusion.
The $29,000 could have been used to buy library books.
OMG - what a waste of $29k - I could have figured out the amount of parking needed! Plus the revenue to the city is needed so who would have ever said no to letting them park as it is obviously essential that the company has some parking spaces??? I think the councilors had already figured it was fine for Seacrest to use.
ReplyDeleteI am sure the study wasn't all about parking, electrical systems, traffic flow, and stuff but I agree it was such a waste of money. The decision to let Seacrest use it was probably a foregone conclusion, it was all about who had the right to make that decision.
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