Must of been a rushed job writing this article. Ton of grammatical errors!!!

Who cares DPJ? No one!

This is a story that certainly needs to be told. In my opinion there is to much behind the scenes scheming on projects in Prince George. Usually at the end of the day the taxpayers get stuck with a huge maintenance bill.

The Northern Sports Centre is a case in point., When it was originally planned, we were told it would be self supporting. We are now faced with a $300,000.00 a year payment to NSC to keep it afloat. UNBC are also stuck for $300,000.00 per year. These payments could go on for the next 15 years, unless they somehow start to make some money.

Other projects like the Airport Runway expansion, Boundry Road, and the Community Energy System, have cost us upwards of $100 Million tax dollars, and as yet I see so indication of any benefit. Hopefully they are still coming, however I will not be holding my breath.

“Must of been a rushed job writing this article. Ton of grammatical errors!!!”
oh the irony ….. must of ????
must have——must’ve

Let’s not forget they will be bringing up the performing Art’s Center again this year.

Thanks Ben for leading the charge on this matter concerning the former PG Hotel. The whole thing stinks. From my perspective as a life citizen of Pr George and as a taxpayer, I keep seeing some common denominators starting from the current Mayor down. This issue has “legs”!

I doubt if we will see any movment of the PAC until after the Winter Games.

We do however have an issue with the sale of the Pine Valley Golf course. Seems to me that this could be more to benefit business than to generate tax dollars. We really need to watch this one closely, or will will lose this green space to a paved parking lot. Surely we can do better than that.

They might be bringing up the PAC ….. but it is dead for at least a decade or two. Remember, this is PG, not Kamloops.

However, I believe that if anyone looks at property purchases by the City, projects such as the PAC, Wellness Centre, Assisted Housing, etc. have to be brought into the mix because all those were/are public funded projects which the City had on its mind when assembling land in their bulldozing exercise.

Interestingly enough the notion of bulldozing was on the mind of several posters on here for some years. So here the City does it and those same people complain.

Hard to satisfy some of you.

BTW, have a look at these two projects pictured on this site in the past.
May 2010. Versa Design concept image of what Wood Innovation “campus” might look like
http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/16447

Look closely and you will notice that the image is of the FULL block on which the PG Hotel sat. The Ramada Hotel can be seen in the background.

September 2009 Conceptual image of what a Health and wellness centre could look like
http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/14092 looks like a whole block or good part of a whole block to me.

November 2008 PAC http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/11217 a full block is shown.

That lets everyone know that one of the possibilities being looked at was using a whole block. Grandiose ideas to go from virtually nothing to building a facility that took up as much space as the Queen Elizabeth in Vancouver. Champaign taste for beer drinking town.

These projects that Versa and others often created conceptual images for were not done based on fantasy. They were done with knowledge of what was being talked about in the community by those in the provincial and City government and those who were looking to assemble land whether through some agency or through real estate departments such as the one the City has.

In addition we have such project as smart growth on the ground that looked at downtown and brought an additional element in … vast amount of land for a “water feature”. Two full blocks at a minimum, including the block that the Days Inn sits on. The plan was endorsed in principle by the City. To this day we really do not know what that means.

http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/12898/3…ummerland/sgog++produces+concept+of+downtown+with++water+feature,+community+energy,+housing?id=&st=15

We have no planning department that plans. It is a reaction department. It reacts to ideas presented by others. What the basic principles are used to react, I do not have the faintest clue. It is just obvious it is not the OCP.

I think part of the problem itself is the staffing in the planning department. I met a lady from Ontario last year who just graduated from university and signed on with the PG City Planning Department for about a year. Not for training, but as a full-time planner. If that is the case with all of the planners – only brought in for a year at a time – how can they actually plan anything? Are we being used by most to get the experience needed to move onto a better place?

Conceptual images are somewhat misleading. The conceptual image of the new police station while looking somewhat grandiose was appealing to the eye. (if not the pocket book).

The actual structure is a bloody disaster. It looks like we have a penitentiary in the middle of town. All glassed in and perforated with pieces of wood, that make no sense what so ever. In addition some of the structure will be a safety hazard from falling snow, ice, etc;

In other words a $40 Million dollar boondoogle, that will put PG on the map as the City of wasted dollars, and no sense of reality.

It takes a trained eye to look at a two dimensional rendering to pick up excesses and even the notion of pretentious grandeur which does not belong on a public security building.

Good design is hard to come by. That building tkes the notion of facade appliwue to a new height which, once more, we cannot affrod and any reasoanble city administration should not afford on the backs of taxpayer’s money.

We could have used a nice park downtown which are very difficult to come by in this city.

peegee … there is nothing wrong with having some planners at the lowest level.

The problem is we have none at the highest level. Someone needs to be the one who leads the process. We have lost two of them. There is a reason for that. I am not sure what that is, but I have two realistic reasons from past experience. I do not know which one of those is the cause or whether there is another reason why they left. All I know, is no one at City Hall has been knowledgeable enough to understand what has been obviously happening for some time and, if they did see it, able to fix it.

Being a City Manager is not an easy job. Totally different from managing a regional district with a number of unorganized communities such as the Hixons of this world. I mean, look at Hixon. That should give you the story right there. Roads? Highways takes care of most of them.

BTW, we used to have some excellent planners in the past for a City of this size.

Once the Police Station is complete, I hope that the Mayor, Stoltz, and those Councillors who voted for this monolith will be in a photo op, so that all the world will know, who approved this building, who okayed the spending on it. In this case it is very important that those responsible get the credit.

I notice that City Hall has been very quiet about this building to date. I suspect that they too are flabbergasted at what they actually approved and paid for.

40 Cells??? Are we expecting a huge influx of criminals???? Will we once again be the top story in MacLeans Magazine. Does any other police station in BC have 40 Cells??? If not why not.

Palopu if you are right and it has 40 cells then this building is crazy. Not that you would ever be wrong but does anybody know for sure? Gus?

And if my memory is correct the council that actually is responsible for this project is mayor Kinsely and company who approved the location, the design and the contract for construction in 2008. This council hasn’t had anything to do with it and the only thing the last council did was cut the project back by getting rid of the underground parking to save a few million. Thank god they at least did that. I wonder if Kinsely gets asked to come back for the photo of the ribbon cutting?

I think the story will be told to the outside like this. Prince George council voted in favour of $40 million dollar RCMP building. City council voted to purchase PG Hotel to put $500,000 in commonwealth coffers.

City of Prince George can not fund clean drinking water or sewer for its tax paying citizens. That is about how it reads to anyone paying attention.

http://www.buildingandconstruction-canada.com/index.php/sections/community/380-maple-reinders-inc–prince-george-rcmp-facility

From the above link:
“Maple Reinders began work on the Prince George facility in fall 2011 and is scheduled to complete its work by fall 2013. The structure will contain 20 holding cells, exhibit and record storage areas, a vehicle examination bay, service bay and crime analysis lab.”
People in custody have to be protected from danger from others as well as themselves. Thus these cells will hold only one individual each.

Nanaimo, for instance, has 12 cells. I believe Williams Lake has 16, if my memory serves me correctly.

Owwwwww…Ben’s got an FOI. Then why hasn’t he used it and told us the whole story? Ben has had this information for what, a year? And he hasn’t told us the whole story? What are you holding onto Ben?

Maybe Ben’s been covering up for his political sugar-daddy, Pat Bell?

Come on Ben, ask the real questions. Report the real answers. What did PB say to NDIT to entice them into partnering with Commonwealth? What did Pat commit to Commonwealth? How big was the budget in the business plan? How much money did PB actually deliver?

If you’ve truly FOI’d this file, you already have the answers.

Hey Ben, I heard that in April, at a meeting in the Legislature, Pat Bell asked NDIT to foreclose on the Commonwealth land. Seems to me that NDIT is just doing what Pat Bell told them to do. Pat and Janine might have suckered Commonwealth, but so what? They shouldn’t have trusted politicians in the first place.

I’d love you to publish the business plan you FOI’d … it will answer all the questions wouldn’t it?

Interesting Gus.

20 Holding Cells. Not sure where the 40 Cell number came from. Maybe there are 2 Bunks per cell, so that they can house 40 prisoners. If not then these guys are getting some pretty posh prison conditions. Certainly better than a flop house.

Gus. The article does not mention that these are individual cells. All regular prisons have more than one person per cell, so I dont see why the City jail would be any different. In fact at one time they had the drunk tank that would hold 20 people in on room.

In any event, we are well on our way to owning the most expensive jail per square foot in Western Canada, if not all of Canada.