From Pensacola mayor candidate C.J. Lewis:
Nice “Outtakes.†I forwarded it to Mr. Cummings who was at last night’s council meeting and who has been trying to bring the pension issue to their attention. I’m sure he’s glad that someone else cares about the issue.
If we applied the old adage about “keeping first things first†we’d probably find there is plenty of money in the 2009 city budget that we could “unwaste†(a new word?) to build a new downtown library. Within a year or two we might unwaste enough money to also build some more neighborhood libraries.
I live around the corner from Scenic Heights Elementary School where my wife’s now grown kids went to school. It’s a really excellent school. I’d like the council to someday find the money to build a small neighborhood library near the school in the now unused wooded area of 16 acre Hitzman/Optimist Park at Langley & Hilltop. Of course, that’ll never happen if they keep wasting what we give them.
Last night they also voted to spend $3.15 million of Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) dollars to expand the police department headquarters. They also approved spending another $662 thousand to buy 21 new police cars. This last decision falls within the scope of city hall’s motto, “It may not be right but it’s legal.â€
Neither move makes much sense because they also voted to cut the police force by six police officers and three police cadets to include four officers from patrol duty. They only have about a dozen police officers on patrol duty per shift and the goal is to replace the cruisers at the 120,000 mile mark so they shouldn’t be wearing out that fast.
The Community Redevelopment Agency is also spending $5.4 million next year for all sorts of stuff to probably include showing “Horton Hears A Who!†again. Faux sidewalks and streetscape enhancements are all well and good when money is growing on trees but not at the moment.
I’d just like to see a downtown library built sometime in my lifetime.
S/F,
CJ Lewis
