Fair warning: This is a post about an esoteric concern with regard to Denver's need for a new jail and our Mayor's tap dance with regard to bond funded projects in the city, including a Master Plan for my beloved Berkely Park. So, beware, you may be bored by the whole thing if you're not a Denverite.
Denver has needed a new jail for, oh, probably fifteen to twenty years. The current county jail is overcrowded and archaic. It sits on the eastern most boundary of what used to be Stapleton International Airport, an area that has been developed into a remarkably pleasant residential enclave, as well as surrounding commercial developments that have vitalized the area.
The Denver Sheriff's Department, who runs the country Jail, has consistently through the years insisted that the current jail site will not accommodate their needs and, additionally, that the cost of transporting prisoners from the jail -- which is six or seven miles from the core city where arraignments and trials are held -- to the City and County Building is an enormous expense that must be eliminated or, at least, alleviated.
Well, one or two years ago the City and County of Denver bought the site (and building) where the Rocky Mountain News had stood for generations. This site is barely two blocks from the City and County Building where, as I noted, arraignments and trials are held.
Denver's citizens rejected a ballot measure that would have provided the funds to build a new "justice center" on the Rocky Mountain News site in, I believe, 2003. So, city fathers and mothers have been scratching their heads in trying to figure out how to couch the issue in a future bond election to get the damned thing built.
Thursday's, Denver Post provided this piece on the fiscal tap dance Mayor Hickenlooper has come up with to fund the jail. Curiously, the Denver Post reporter or editor chose to entitle this little piece, "Mayor: Jail won't take funds from other projects."
What bothers me most about the Hick's tap dance on this one is his comment that: "We are going to do this with no new tax increase. I think we can do this comfortable within the existing tax structure. ...It does tie our hands for five or six years -- then you can see where capacity will open up."
So, what the hell is he talking about. Well, Hick's plan, if passed by the electorate, will, as the Post story says, "...technically ... exceed the $70 million threshold in 2006 and 2007..." of the bond indebtedness that Denver can, legally, carry. Ol' Hick believes that this is not a problem. In fact, he's suggesting that this excess liability can be picked up with the city's reserve fund which is utilized to, for one thing, provide bond markets with a guarantee that Denver will not default on its obligations and, therefore, keep Denver's bond rating as high as possible.
Now, to what I really want to talk about.
As you may have read at one point in this blog, or, indeed, viewed pictures included in this blog, I am an avid, no, rabid advocate of Berkeley Park where Melissa and I run each morning, every morning of year, rain,shine or snow. And, in being such an advocate, my interests are best served by espousing the implementation of the Berkeley Park Master Plan which, if eventually fully realized, will cost in excess of twenty-million dollars and take about twenty to thirty years to complete.
Why so much money? Why so long to complete the improvements included in the Master Plan. Easy answer: 1) moneywise, today's dollars are going to be inadequate five, ten, twenty or thirty years from today. So, if the improvements suggested by the Master Plan may, today, be about ten to fifteen million, in twenty or thirty years you can bet the cost of those improvements will increase by, at least, one-hundred percent. 2) The reason it will take so long to complete the improvements included in the Berkeley Master Plan is that there is an incredibly aggressive competition amongst city councilmen/women and city agencies with regard to what bond legislation is placed upon any particular ballot for the citizen's to approve or reject. Additionally, there are monies allocated within the General Fund of Denver called CIP, or Capital Improvement Project funds, for which there is probably an even greater competition amongst city agencies.
So, as nice as the Berkeley Park Master Plan may be; as attractive as the improvements in that plan may be, they will not be realized unless bond money and CIP funds are allocated for them.
Now, with Hick's pronouncement that, "...our hands [will be tied] for five or six years..." if the jail bond issue is passed, the writing is plainly on the wall. Northwest Denver's hopes, dreams for improvements to Berkeley Park will be put off for, at least, five or six years, therefore extending the final realization of the Berkeley Park Master Plan to probably thirty or forty years.
God, I won't live to see it.
Finally, no, the title of the piece in the Denver Post should not have read: "Mayor: Jail won't take funds from other projects." The title of the piece should have read: "Hick's proposal will delay all bond funded projects throughout the city by, at least, ten years."
That's the facts, folks. Sorry if I've bored regular readers of this blog. But, I love Berkeley Park as a unique ecosystem and serene, precious resource in my Northwest Denver neighborhood that I pray can benefit from the Master Plan that so-well defines what needs to be done to assure the continuity of the precious resource we call Berkeley Park.
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