A councilor who cares
To the editor:
It is said, as a public official the best course of action is always to stay above the fray, don’t debate and be professional. Well that is good advice for officials who deal with nameless numbers of people, and who will never truly know their constituents. I however, as a local citizen servant do not have that mystery.
I know hundreds of Presque Isle citizens and what their situation is personally. This is because I grew up here and was educated here and I do business with many of you professionally. So to read the comments of Dr. Richard Graves, who is my eye doc and a very good one I might add, troubles me.
What am I missing? Am I not in touch? Or is this the sound of frustration and lack of insight on what is going on behind the scenes?
As a City Council we are charged with making decisions that will directly affect every one of you who reside in, or have property in Presque Isle. We are not able to do many things that a private individual can. We cannot just call and get a contractor, or buy something. We have to publish requests for bids and follow processes. So can we do things overnight? No! Does the process we follow usually add complexity, time and cost? Yes! It does frustrate me to no end sometimes, but to be fair and objective that is the way things have to be done. So this means that we cannot react quickly and we cannot just do anything, even if it would seem to be common sense. I wish we could.
So why have the Pool and the Community Center taken until now to be realized? The Community Center has been a 10-year process that included several committees, a vote by the public and the word of your council that we would keep our promise on cost and donations. This past week the final funding piece in the way of an incredibly generous donation completed the pledge we made to the voter when they agreed to the terms set forth. So we voted Monday to move ahead with the building.
As for the Pool, it was never part of the Community Center project funding. It was rolled into the building committee’s job once we were notified of the safety issues and we could not in good conscience let it be used again. That part of the project was to be paid by the city… meaning your tax dollars. To that end we engaged the architect to design a new facility on the site next to the new Community Center. The project was bid out and we received back those quotes which were approaching $3 million. Our pre-bid estimates and budget called for a $1.5 million price tag.
In light of this, we have held onto this portion of the project and are in the process of re-bidding the pool construction. Our local construction consultants feel that with revisions and without the fees and markup of a construction manager we can get the project back into the realm of the budget. Of course we could have simply said go ahead on this Monday as well. But, I suspect that this route, though it adds time is the best use of your money.
This whole endeavor has been exceptionally time consuming for everyone involved and has caused many restless nights as we have struggled to see how we can produce a project that will be meaningful in the lives of our citizens and especially our youth, for the next 50 to 100 years and at the same time not cause already struggling household budgets to become unmanageable.
As I said at the beginning, I know who you, my friends, relatives, neighbors and even doctors, are and what you have for challenges. It is with this knowledge and compassion for your situations, that I and my fellow Council members have approached how we spend your money and deliver services. Are we perfect? No. Do we care deeply about this community? Yes.
So before you attack our “collective butts,” maybe just call and talk to me or Mike, Emily, Randy, Leigh, Dick or Pete, you know who we are because we are not strangers. We are the same people we were before we got elected, and we are your citizen representatives.
Craig R. Green
Presque Isle
