Gilroy’s overpriced police station might lose $6 million of its
stunning $26 million price tag if proposed new designs are approved
next month.
Gilroy’s overpriced police station might lose $6 million of its stunning $26 million price tag if proposed new designs are approved next month.
It’s a good first step, but it’s not enough.
Nearby Morgan Hill is spending $9 million on a new police station – and we still can’t understand why Gilroy’s facility needs to cost more than double that amount.
A good first step would be to eliminate the proposed jail – at a savings of $1.6 million. Eliminating the jail would also save the city the pricey staffing costs associated with running a jail – and because police and fire services eat up a whopping 80 percent of Gilroy’s general fund, that’s a much-needed bonus.
There’s no reason Gilroy police can’t continue to take their prisoners on a 30-minute ride to San Jose on U.S. 101, just like the Morgan Hill Police Department does now, and will continue to do after its much more reasonably priced police station opens.
We continue to be amazed that a $20 million police station gets a tacit nod of approval from City Council members and we fail to comprehend why the entire debacle of spiraling police station costs – especially when compared to the price tag of Morgan Hill’s facility – doesn’t generate more outrage among our elected officials whose job it is to protect taxpayer dollars.
For that reason, we believe that no more action on the police station of any kind – no directions to architects on plans, no approval or vetoes of changes, no decisions of any kind – should be made by this City Council. An election that might radically change the political landscape of City Council is a few weeks away.
Let’s give the voters a chance to let city leaders know what they think about this issue – and others, to be sure – at the ballot box, before the city is any more committed to building an overpriced police station.
