Comments about ‘Becker, others promote new public-safety building’

I think we should leave the building up until the "Big One" hits. That'll take care of the demolition costs, and the federal disaster money will pay for rebuilding it. We all win!

$125 million is quite a sum. To put it into perspective the proposed library in glendale and West Capitol Hill are around $8 million a piece. While I realize that a police HQ requires more technology and costs, the proposed building could buil about 15 new libraries. I fail to see why this building costs so much.

A library is a single floor building meant to house books. It also requires about 4-5 employees. The plans are already drawn up and land size is much smaller.

The new building will house around 500 people. It will be several floors and 10 times the size of a library. It will have elevators and thousands of feet of varying fiber optic cables and other specialized wiring. It will have hardened rooms for interviews and holding. There also needs to be a parking structure and a seperate hardened building for emergency communications. Then both buildings need to withstand a major earthquake if possible. Suffice it to say, its quite more elaborate than building a four walled book warehouse.

Question answered.

The citizens have a choice: 1) pay for the public safety building, or 2) end up paying much more for increased insurance and other costs resulting from the increased crime rate that will result from a failure to build this facility.

OK, the building is old (1957) and run down. I agree it needs to be replaced.

One thing to remember is that is one of the few remaining buildings in the "International Style" left in Utah.

Since the building was owned by SLC since 1988, why has it not been maintained? Leaking pipes, elevators that do not run etc.

Sounds like there is some negligence there.

Whiggy had its' way .....all of our tax money would go to some kind of Law Enforcement upgrade! Thats all Whiggy comments on. Why not find an unleased building and use that? If you drive around there are alot of them sitting collecting dust.

$75,000 for an "education effort"? with "some" of it donated by private companies? Which companies? And where is this $75k education effort money going to? Probably some PR/lobbyist firm who is in tight with the Mayors office. This needs to be researched more.

If the elevator is the main problem, that is relatively easy to correct. Also, there is no reason for anyone stuck in an elevator to wait for 45 minutes to get out. Also, there is no reason to have to exit the elevator through the roof. This whole argument is a "straw man."

I was under the impression that this bond had already been voted on and approved in the last election. So are they adding on another bond to double the size of the first one? I also hope this bond will only apply to the business and residents of SLC and not the whole state as they usually do.

As for the land, why don't they use eminent domain laws to devalue the land and change the zoning to a public and not commercial? Or is that stepping on someones toes of a friend in the government? Changing the zoning has been the practice of big business and government to confiscate private property in the past so why not use that logic here?

With all the cut backs in Government, I am not sure if this is the right time.

With the commercial building industry at almost a standstill, are they going to save money because of more available competitive contractors, or will they pay the going rate during the boom years?

I hope they are taking advantage of the downturn with less labor costs, but I doubt it.

While there is general agreement that an efficient public safety building is needed and needed soon, the site for the building is still unacceptable. Yes, its off the library block but should not be built on 300 east between 4th and 5th South.

There are a number of citizens preparing to let Mayor Becker know they will support the bond if a different site is announced, but if the Barnes Bank site remains the first choice, they will actively oppose the bond.

Hopefully the Mayor will respond quickly so that we can move forward as a community and do the right thing.

Whiggy, nice job of fear mongering.

Huh? 1. A Salt Lake City bond would apply only to Salt Lake City. 2. No, there was no bond passed last year for a new public safety building.

The proposed location is awful...until there is a better idea I will vote NO.