COUNCIL MEETING MAY 26, 2022

A public comment delivered in the form of an email was read. In it, the writer stated that the village has moved away from the government lite approach that was promised by the incorporators. There is no doubt about that.

The elected council is in the big government camp. It has been the same five council members since incorporation. Together, they hired someone as their village manager that is carrying out the big government vision of the council. Everything points to a continuation, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see another doubling of the village’s employees to 70 or more in the next three years.

The ones who were elected to the council were not those who were instrumental in incorporating the village. The incorporators ceased to matter when the voters chose the current council. Susan Gibbs-Thomas could have been a government lite member, but she is constantly a lone voice in that direction.

That belief in small government has been left for dead. The only question is whether, at some point, the village goes whole hog and has its own police and fire departments. For most other village departments, bigger is better. Big government also means big flash and subsidization of costs by their fairy godmother, FPL. Which brings us to the new village complex.

Conceptional plans were rolled out at the meeting. The administration building, along with the community building, will be over 39,000 square feet. A water park is also being considered located between the two buildings, but no price was given for it. Also contemplated is a fire/rescue station, police station, and aquatics center in the future.

There could be a third floor for the administration building for future growth adding an additional 10,000 square feet. The cost of the two buildings currently planned would be $15.3 to $18.7 million and if the third floor is added, $3.8 million more. While building costs now range from $300 to $475 per square foot, the architect consultant believes it will be brought in at $375 per square foot. It takes 33 months from council approval to completion using the consultant’s timeline.

This is not government lite. I would suspect that the council will approve the plan and add a considerable amount of debt to the village. There will be some talk about grants paying for some of it.

Is this project necessary? Depending on who you ask, village government is growing at a speedy pace. Is this what was intended when people voted to incorporate? Is it time to have a vote to see whether the citizens want to go into further debt? There was some rationale for the water and sewer plant. The numbers that were given to repair the facility were proven incorrect. To bring the waterworks up to speed will cost many millions. Now many more millions are being thought about for a new city hall and gym.

This should go to the voters to decide. They can overwhelmingly support this or reject it. It is too big to entrust to the council. Let’s see if there is a mandate to appropriate this money and continue with big government or look at government medium as an alternative. Lite is past coming back.

You can see the presentation here https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:94dcd5fd-53ab-3bc8-b5da-9bdd74978094