Letter to the editor

Fairfield should delay referendum

This past Monday night’s Fairfield City Council meeting was a start to an open discussion of the proposed destruction of the Department of Transportation property, and proposed construction of a $6 million new fire station at that location.

Of concern is that the public has not been informed of critical information.

After repeating the proposal that the DOT property could be repurposed for senior housing, a day care facility, and shop area for new home construction, it was stated: "If a developer had offered to re-purpose the DOT building, we would have considered it as part of our analysis.“

Why was the task force not told of this offer, made repeatedly, for over a year and a half?

How can the public make an informed decision, if even the task force isn't given extremely relevant information?

The task force obviously also didn’t consider the loss of property tax dollars into the future that would result from the destruction of the DOT building.

This is "material" and “necessary” information for the public to know.

In addition, the task force also did not consider the use of eminent domain to solve the decades old problem of the new Chicago area to reclaim the entire block between Grimes and Depot on North 4th Street.

Simply put, if the citizens were told that the city could either destroy these falling down buildings, as opposed to the DOT buildings, what would they choose?

Further, our former mayor stated that the old fire station would be sold to add property tax dollars to the city. In fact, the fire department intends to use this property for "storage" with its attendant ongoing maintenance, heating and cooling expenses, etc.

Once again, a misrepresentation was made to the public that the citizens are to rely upon in their decision making.

The city administrator eventually admitted that if the DOT property was not available “we would look at other alternatives." Simple. The destruction of the DOT property is absolutely not necessary.

It must also be pointed out that the city gave their consent to bid on the DOT property after they were told that the city "could not develop on the lots behind the fire station because of buried fiber optic cables that could not be moved.” In fact, both Lisco and Natel confirmed that this is done routinely.

Further, it was also finally admitted that rising costs could make it impossible to complete the station, as envisioned, and that the extra money would need to come from an unknown “somewhere.”

The process of the selection of the proposed DOT site is rife with inadequate disclosure and misinformation.

I know of no way to correct these misrepresentations after they are everywhere in social media, etc.

The city should delay the "referendum" vote until full disclosure is achieved, including real public hearings. Anything less than this and the voting will be without the required informed consent of the people

Ed Noyes

Fairfield

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