RECREATION CENTER OR POLICE STATION?

In the news, Public Safety Commissioner Christian Mathiesen has set aside $10,000.00 to explore how the police station in the basement of City Hall can be renovated. 

We remember not that long ago when then PS Commissioner Ron Kim declared the need for a new Police Station, a need I might add is 50 years past due.  The Republican majority at the time declared that we didn’t have the money and went on to pour money into a new Recreation Center.  The question I ask myself and others is, Why does Saratoga Springs promote itself as the best tourist destination in the country, yet in every aspect of government and outdated building codes, we are so far in the past it is pretty disgusting.  The only one that benefits from Saratoga taxes and fast track building permits, also a payment for City property that has not been paid in 5 years but was included in past budgets, is none other that that grand builder Sonny Bonacio.  Now don’t get me wrong, Sonny has done some good things in Saratoga but most of what he has done has ruined our ‘City in the Country’, that moniker does not even come close to what Saratoga Springs is today.

Anyway, back to the Police Station.  Why is it taking the decision makers like Roohan, Sutton, Tarantino, Anderson and pack to realize that they need to give the nod to get a new station in place?  They didn’t listen to Kim, but had a chance when Wirth occupied the seat.  Could it have been that Wirth would not have been capable to oversee such a venture?  Now must we wait for City Hall to collapse so that we can sell the property to Bonacio?  He then could build a new City Hall/Police Station/Law Library on the 2^nd & 3^rd floors and retail space on the 1^st floor and lease floors 2 & 3 to the City.  This sounds like a deal that Mayor Johnson/Sutton are salivating over.

Your Captain says to stay tuned, this isn’t over.  Just wait until the ceiling falls down, I’m sure some will blame Commissioner Christian Mathiesen for that.