How the new police precinct got flooded and drowned Let’s take a step back to 2006 and the promise that $25 million would be spent on a much-needed new police precinct. The old precinct looked like a colander on a dry day with buckets placed strategically in between desks, windows and sills covered in duck tape and a ceiling that was so water-stained it could serve as a Rorschach test for suspects who might claim insanity. But alas and as the sobbing story of Clowncil always goes, there was no money to build something new because of that darn financial crisis nobody predicted even though I can easily direct everybody to articles that appeared at that time. National and international news doesn’t travel in Savannah as fast as anywhere else and so the City cheerleaders were caught completely off guard, hence no money to fill the holes. Mary Osborne, cash-rich after cashing in $50K for a flooding that occurred 10 years ago, came with a miraculous solution. Let’s buy a mini-mall on Waters Avenue right next the popular “drug store”, a.k.a. the Waters revitalization project flagship, and turn it into a new precinct. $2 million later and occupying tenants with more legal tenacity than the regular 99%, the City settled for a $1.4 million extreme façade makeover instead even though there was no money. Not to worry! The City simply “redirected” funds from one account to the other, similar to the magic trick of Savannah Gardens, and voila. The promised precinct was simply forgotten but in the meantime $900K was spent on fixing the Rorschach-type ceiling, caulking windows and saving a ton of money on buckets. The City adjusted their SPLOST V projections in 2010 and reallocated $48 million from the arena to other “critical” projects such as Savannah Gardens, Cultural Arts Center, recreation facilities etc. Please feel free to verify what I am trying to point out by clicking on the link below or copy and paste it in your browser: savannahga.gov/index.aspx?NID=1352. Despite all of this maneuvering, the broken promises and the precinct’s Band Aid instead of the new precinct, the City in all its wisdom still did not place a new precinct on its priority list. Instead, they want us to rejoice about the fact that we all get a new arena and a new children’s museum. It is blatantly clear that Clowncil finds entertainment for the masses far more important than the safety of its taxpaying residents. We don’t need protection, safety or peace of mind when we walk, stroll, dine or park on our streets. No, according to them we should be grateful that in 2020 we can all be entertained for a while and our kids can look at pictures in the new museum. Remember ancient Rome? One day the Emperor decided to give the populace Panem et Cicerem and the next day Rome disappeared from the books, only to be remembered by some readers of classical literature. To be continued….
Posted on: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 14:51:09 +0000
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