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To the Editor,
The Monday night town hall meeting was interesting for several reasons. The dynamics of the council participants appeared to have changed and it seemed the council were genuinely interested in getting outside input concerning the placement of the proposed "public safety building." I love seeing terminology migrate into euphemisms. This building is going to keep Weirton safer? It sounds more high falutin so does that justify the $10 million price tag?
Craig Howell, in his weekend column, asked how the project would be paid for and made note of our current 20-year high inflationary economy; both, poignant observations. When one of the speakers at the meeting asked the same question, there was dead silence. Obviously, council members had not put much thought into financing. Then the mayor referenced the relatively new city sales and B&O taxes. Those two revenue streams can be raised at will, so council doesn't have to worry about putting the cart before the horse. And that should be a concern to all of us.
I don't know the merits of giving the police department its own building. Adequately informing the public for its decisions is not a strength of this administration or council. I never heard the police needed new digs until we got a new chief this past summer. They now occupy an entire floor (1st/basement) which is one-third of the city building. When you look at the old city building on County Road, one wonders how so many departments managed in such a small space. And when they moved to their present location, I'll bet they thought they died and went to heaven, including the police.
Times change, but the old adage remains the same: the more money you have, the more you spend. The problem is, as private citizens we can't replenish our coffers by putting a gun to our fellow citizens' head and demand their money, government can and does.
The predominant demographic of Weirton is senior – 55 and older. Many seniors have relocated here because they couldn't afford their communities' taxes after retirement. To them ours was a reletive bargain. Given the water/sewer expansion (that has gone from 24 million to double that and heaven only knows the actual price at project completion), a proposed 10 million dollar police facility, and whatever other sugar plums are dancing in the mayor's and council's heads, our relatively lower tax burden is rapidly evaporating.
And that too, should be a concern of all of us.
Blaise Hogan
Weirton