NEAT - info about SPPS budget: http://tinyurl.com/3gt66 _________________________________________ Last night I attended the University United meeting about the Ford Building near Rice and University Ave. Brian from UU made a remarkable presentation about the construction and history of the building. He was followed by Kath (don't recall last name) from State Administrative Services. They are responsible for managing all state office buildings. She indicated that the issue was cost and cost alone. If it cost too much to renovate or operate the building, it needed to come down. She did not allow for any historic preservation value in her evaluation. So here is the plan. They issue $1.5 million in general obligation bonds to tear down the building and make it a parking lot. Right now since the building is empty it costs about $24,000 per year for general mothballing expense. It would cost about $10 million to rehab it, according to her.
I pointed out that the cost of operating the Capitol building and the SOB is much higher than the cost of operating more traditional office space and by her logic we should tear them down and start over with something more efficient. She did not disagree with my analysis but did not indicate there was any immediate plan to impliment her approach to those two buildings. She did allow that since this was a historic building, she had put money into the budget to document the building as it was coming down. (Boy, that made me feel a lot better!) The bottom line is if we do not want to spend $1.5 million to tear down a historic building and replace it with a parking lot, we need to call the Governor and the Saint Paul delegation. Contact UU or me if you want more information. UU has information about the project including some marvelous old photos. http://universityunited.com/projects.htm#ford Jeanne Weigum Living in Merriam Park Working on University Ave. -- Jeanne Weigum 651-646-3005 fax 651-646-0142 _____________________________________________ SPPS Budget Reduction Forum - Feb. 23-27 Co-Sponsored By NEAT: http://www.stpaulneat.org/ _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
