Saratoga Springs City Council incumbents are giving freshmen committee members the opportunity to play catch-up on the ongoing new public safety building proposal.
Public Safety Commissioner Ron Kim extended the invitation to his fellow council members and appointed liaisons to sit in on a new committee charged with reviewing potential building designs for the new facility. Kim said he expects that contractors BBL will have a design ready for council review soon.
The new City Council wants to understand how we came to these conclusions, said Kim. `We’ve studied this pretty thoroughly.`
Discussion of relocating the city’s police force to a new building outside of City Hall and renovating the lower floors of City Hall first began in 1976. In addition to the eight studies done more than 30 years ago, as of last year, several other studies have been conducted and Kim’s new commission would be the second panel to place the new building under the microscope.
Tempers flared at meetings in the past year over council inaction to move on the $8 million allocated last year for the build.
`The problem is that there has been no design based on that $8 million,` said Anthony `Skip` Scirocco, first-term Department of Public Works commissioner.
Before being elected commissioner, Scirocco reported to the police station nearly every day for 30 years as the city animal control officer.
He said he saw it go from an `OK place` to do business to the honeycomb of walls that make up its cramped interior these days. The need for a new building, or something, is there, he added.
Scirocco said he is in favor of the new committee to review the initial design plans, however, he said he is wary of what council members can do with it when it finally comes across their desk. For one, he asked, where is the project going, and furthermore, just what is the city going to get with $8 million.
BBL, which is also the contractor of the Federal Court House on Eagle Street in Albany, put an initial price tag on the new building at around $17 million, said Kim. The company also made first-glance estimates on improvements to City Hall at $18.7 million.
Kim noted that the cost to rehab City Hall only accounted for the bricks and mortar and doesn’t take into account disruptions to city government.
`I’m a little concerned about the numbers, but I’m willing to go through with the process. In the end I want to feel comfortable going to the City Council and saying, ‘I did my best,’` Kim said.
Both Kim and Scirocco agreed that the need to relocate the police force won’t go away, regardless of what the design comes back as or what additional costs the city could incur.
Kim said that what is at the heart of the debate is that no one wants to spend the money, but if the city waits, those cost will only go up.
For now, the city will fork over another near $30,000 for committee consultants as it did in 2003 and again in 2006 with the Public Safety Capital Construction Committee.
`It’s time to do what they need to do there,` said Scirocco. “