No New City Hall
July 18, 2017
DougMaynard.com

Is the local Laurinburg City Council really that desperate to sell the idea to the masses here in Laurinburg that they (via City Manager Charles Nichols) had to resort to sending pictures of rain damage and a leaky roof to the news media to show how desperately Laurinburg “needs” that new $10,000,000 City Hall? It looks like it because that’s exactly what Mr. Nichols did yesterday, sending photos to WPDE. The damage shown is actually a pretty simple fix for a few hundred dollars and a trip to Lowes, but what Charles doesn’t mention with these pictures is that with simple preventive maintenance, there would never have been a leaky roof that needed to be repaired, not to this degree anyhow, but our City Council, and there are records of this, ordered that all maintenance for the current Laurinburg Police Station be stopped… two years ago. So for two years, simple steps that could have and should have been performed to keep the current buildings up, were not done, per the orders of the current City Council. And now, they’re crying the blues because they need that new City Hall so badly and the old building is falling apart around them. Boo Hoo! What the hell?

The simple and plain truth of the matter is that while it would be nice to have a fancy, more modern City Hall and police station for Laurinburg, it’s not necessary and now is not the time to be considering such a project. Our police department and city management has actually gotten smaller over the past couple of years, so why the need for more room? If Laurinburg was a prosperous and growing community, and the City Council had good, strong, legitimate arguments for spending this kind of money and putting our city in this kind of debt, I’ll say, “Let’s consider it!”. But there are no good reasons? A new City Hall isn’t going to bring jobs to the community. It isn’t going to help reduce the crime rate. It sure as hell isn’t going to help lower taxes, and we’re already the highest taxed county in North Carolina. Really, what will a new City Hall do except for sit there and look pretty? Spend that money on trying to bring jobs back to Laurinburg. Spend that money on fixing the many, many roads that flood, all over Laurinburg, every time we get any kind of rain, Atkinson St. behind Pizza Inn for example, or over by the Court House. What’s the point in having a new City Hall if we have to wade through flooded streets to get to it.

Laurinburg is not a thriving community. A great deal of our population lives on fixed incomes. We have the highest unemployment rate in the state. We have the highest property taxes in the state. We have one of the worst crime rates in the state for violent crime. We have a major drug epidemic in our county and among the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state. There is nothing good going on here except for some pretty damn awesome people. And this new City Hall will fix things how?

What I would love to have happen is to have the five members of our City Council just get in front of the citizens of Laurinburg and explain to us like we’re five years old (they obviously think we’re all idiots anyhow) why this is a good idea and so important to each of the Council members. Forget the political double-speak or talking in circles, something a couple our Council members are excellent at, and just be straight forward and just tell us why? Maybe they have at some point, but if they did, I missed it and all I hear are statistics and political jibber-jabber. Pretend we’re kids and tell us why? I know that will never happen, but one can always hope, right?

And let’s don’t even get started on the Barrett Building, aka the current Laurinburg City Hall. An almost ninety year old classic home turned into offices and our City Council, showing their love of history and concern for our town, want to raze it to the ground to make room for their new palace. They have already moved the City employees that worked in this building to a a new, nicely renovated building a few blocks away, leaving this historical landmark sitting empty and abandoned. So all of the time and money that was originally put into this former Mans to convert into the City Hall is to be forgotten about and ignored. The house is amazing to see and is in incredible shape and our City Council just wants to trash it too. And again, they throw out statistics and political double-talk and jibber jabber, but won’t give any straight up reasons why this pet project of theirs takes precedence over trying to make our city better and safer. Oh vey!

There is a meeting at the City Council chambers tonight and while rumors are abound that the Council has asked that City Employees arrive early and take up all the seating so that opponents of the City Hall / Palace will be inconvenienced and hopefully not stay around, I expect that there will be a big turnout. I’m pretty sure that this won’t change any minds and that the Laurinburg City Council will just try to move ahead with their plans and ignore what the citizens of Laurinburg say. That’s pretty much all they’ve done so far and meetings like the one tonight, are just formalities that our City Council have to endure, but could care less about. But maybe, just maybe the message will seep through their thick and stubborn minds. No New City Hall! Save the Barrett Building! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it to the meeting tonight physically, but I will be there in spirit.

This is so freaking crazy and why it is even an issue? I have not met ten people, outside of the current City Council members, who want this new $10,000,000 project to continue. I have seen and heard hundreds who want this waste of time and money ended and for our Council to change their focus to things that actually matter, like schools, crime, flooding streets, the lack of jobs and industry, drugs, the high light bills, the high taxes, etc. We, the people, can see this. Why can’t those that were elected (or appointed as the case may be) do the same.

Oh vey!

And with that, I’m ending my little rant for the morning and climbing off my soap box. Save the Barrett Building! No New City Hall! Thank you for reading and I’ll catch you later. Comments and thoughts are welcome and appreciated. Have a great day!

Ubuntu!