Did some more thinking after Monday's Shawnee City Council Meeting (2/26/07)
The council members who wanted to delay the approval for 60 days while looking into the possibility of converting a vacated Hy Vee, were, IMHO, off base. They kept talking about saving the taxpayers money. The contractors kept trying to explain how building certain things from scratch are usually cheaper than retrofitting (like an EOC).
But, one point that I didn't hear anybody bring up was the effect on taxes that using the Hy Vee would have. The Police Department, as a city agency does not pay property taxes. That Hy Vee is sitting in a prime retail/commercial area. Taking it off the tax rols could be quite costly over a 20 year period.
The emphasis here needs to be on getting that property reoccupied, either as one large store, or even broken down and subdivided as a mini-mall/office complex. Wow, jsut think of the property taxes that would be generated, and, if it is retail, the sales taxes.
I'm happy to see that 4 of the council members and the mayor had the intestinal fortitude to finally approve this thing.
