What happened to the idea of building a $4.7 million public safety building? Do we still need the room?
In 2006&7 there was a move by the City Council to build a huge police building next to City Hall. The citizens of Columbus were appalled by the cost and through a grass roots effort put in place a spending limit for the Council. All construction projects over $1,000,000 must now go to referendum.
The police area is small, cramped, messy and certainly needs to be addressed. I have hired a firm to do a space study of the entire City Hall structure to determine if offices and space can be used more efficiently to conduct city business... including police. Before we go ahead and build additional space, we need to make sure that we are using what we have effectively. The study should be completed this summer and then I will bring it forward to the council to review and determine what changes can be made. My guess is that when we have a professional take a look at how we use our space, they will be able to find ways to utilize office it better, and our need for additional space will be less. The original plan was to spend almost $5,000,000 on a police facility... I'm sure that this entire project will be significantly less than that.
