Maybe they could find a small spot on this clock to let the citizens of Prince George know what the current city debt is. Debt eventually has to be paid, maybe not by us, but certainly by the next generation.
The next generation (who is going to have major financial challenges of their own) is going to wonder what kind of drugs we were on, and why we went on such an irresponsible spending spree. Money does not grow on trees. Generally speaking, as a society we are living way beyond are means.

and that clock will cost HOW MUCH???

COST. One (1) Million and counting. In addition you will note that Madden makes reference to training staff. At some point I suppose we will find out how much it will cost us to run this equipment each year. We might get some advertising revenue out of it, to offset some of the cost.

This is another example of an idea that to the best of my knowledge originated with the Mayor who got it through Council and now we have a Million Dollar clock, (replay board) that if the truth were known very few if any people in Prince George actually wanted it, and certainly would not want it for the cost of $ 1 Million dollars. Once the Cougers leave Prince George we will have even less use for this clock.

This is one of many very expensive projects that originates with the Mayor and costs us all kinds of money. Can we really afford to keep this guy around????

When will the Mayor and Council wake up and admit that **enough is enough**, quit spending money, and start to reduce costs????

$21.5 Million dollar police station, would be a good cost cutting project. Renovate the present police station, and save us $18 Million plus interest. Just think of the paving you could get done just with the interest you saved.

Cameron St., Bridge $9 Million more or less. Could repair bridge for $750,000.00 and save us $8 Million. I understand that the City has once again approached the Provincial, and Federal Government for funding to build this bridge, so if they get some help, the cost to the City could be reduced to say $3 Million . Still to much money to service 8000 vehicles per day. (Number inflated to justify cost) Some people say acutal number should be in the 2000 to 3000 vehicles per day range.

Keep your eye on the ball as the saga continues.

Further to the Cameron St., bridge. We know that the Mayor has always been in favour of building a new bridge, so I suggest it is safe to say that he is the driving force behind building a new bridge, and therefore responsible for the cost. (And all the re-routed traffic for 3 years)

Insofar as the Police Station goes, I understand that the Police want a new building, and the City (Mayor) went along with the request.

Has there ever been a comprehensive analysis done on the old building to see what could be done to fix it up to a standard that would satisfy the Police, and therefore save us Millions of dollars. I dont think so. So again we can thank the Mayor for this huge and probably unnecessary expenditure.

There is no law in this land that prohibits the Mayor and Council from telling the Police that the facility that they have is sufficient for their needs. It is pretty obvious that the Police want a new building and that City Council (Mayor) wants to build a new building. Thats all there is to it.

The huge spending by this Council is fiscally irresponsible and should be subject to an audit.

There is a huge difference between building what the City needs to function, and building for the sake of spending money, without due diligence in regards to actual need.

"Union guys" gonna "run" the new clock? Jest wunderin.

A big to do about nothing,
that costs so much,
to be used by so few,
to watch something that really doesn't need to be seen to start with.

Ah more taxpayer's money. Ho hum keep jacking the taxes we like it.

Palopu, it seems like if you had your way there would be no bridgeto replace the existing worn out one, no score clock or even CN center, no art gallery, no museum, no RCMP building etc..

Do you ever travel? PG has some catching up to do to replace some of the old buildings and to get into the 21st century. Maybe we should still have wooden sidewalks. If we did, I bet you would complain about the size of the gaps.

If there was a study done about a police station you would complain about another study! The new police station has been discussed for nearly 12 years!

Maybe any city buildings or facilities should be sod shacks so that the spending would stay within "your" budget!

Its just like the city to blow a huge wad of cash, and then at a time that is useless as well.
I am sure the hockey players in "JUNE" will enjoy the new over-priced timex.
Strange my timex only cost me about $40....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

What an utter waste not to have performance tied in with the purchase of the clock. It should have been in place for the hosting of the National Junior Championships here in town. That only ever happens once, and to have the clock arrive after the tournament ends is a huge disappointment. Someone at city hall dropped the ball big time... again....

I don't buy the line it can't be installed. Someone needs to be motivated IMO.

I must've heard the story wrong. I didn't realize the mayor was spending $1M to have a new CLOCK installed. The way I thought I had heard it, it made more sense...

Maybe we should have taken a hand-me-down from the Flames ..... or Canucks....

http://www.calgaryflames.com/cgi-bin/news/comments.cgi?type=newsroom&file_num=0000001060

"Calgary Flames President and CEO Ken King said the new clock cost in the range of $3.5 million."

Clock you say????

http://www.canucks.com/view_archive.asp?sectionID=5&id=1693

"Meet the NHL’s latest ProStar® centre-hung video display system –most of us would call it a score clock, albeit a fancy one."

"Simply put, it was time for all 50,000 pounds of the old scoreclock to go unceremoniously the way of Betamax and Laser Video Discs — to the scrapheap. It took ten workers two full days to lower and dismantle."

Don't we just love this throw away generation?

Red2b. Firstly as previously explained this City spends $100 Million a year, and is $56 Million in debt, not counting the $61 Million for the Terasen gas deal.

If your such a traveller then travel out to the Nechako River and you will see that we have two bridges across this river and the Cameron St., bridge makes it three. These 3 bridges are within 7 Kilometers of each other and I doubt if you would ever find such a stupid situation anywhere in Canada. Thats why I suggest that a repair to the existing bridge, and to fully utilize the other 2 bridges would make more sense.

The CN Multiplex was built to seat 6600 people. After the **Gee Im having fun** crowd left after the first 4 years it now averages 3000 fans per game. Drop the 500 or so season ticket holders who dont attend the games on a regular basis and you would be lucky to come up with 2500 fans in a 6600 seat arena. The operation of this facility costs the City $450,000.00 to $600,000.00 per year. One might be able to live with the Million dollar clock if they were breaking even but to spend 1 Million when your losing $500,000.00 per year is fiscally irresponsible.

The Art Gallery was built even though most people in the City were not in favour of it. When you are out travelling you might want to drop in and talk to the staff. The reason you will talk to the staff is because on any given day they are the only people in this facility. You can make your own judgement.

Our present police station is 36 years old. This is not old for a building, most of the high rise apartment, and office building in this town are older that this police station. It could have easily been renovated to a standard that would meet the needs of the police, rather than us building a new one for 21.5 Million, plus interest, plus the original cost of the property that we will build it on. If what you say is true *They have been talking about a new station for 12 years* then I suppose they were ready to replace this building when it was only 24 years old.

Prince George is a **Small Town** that suffers from a severe case of **Big Shotism** and has a terrible inferiority complex that it trys to cover by building new and fancy facilitys to make some people feel good.

Only in Prince George would someone suggest to build a few apartments with a few stores on 5th and Quebec, and have the audacity to call it a **Metropolis**

Only in Prince George would you have both the BC Statistics, and the Federal Census show the population to be anywhere between 74000 and 77000 for 10 years running, and the Mayor and Council refuse to change the sign on Hiway 16 and 97 showing the population for the last 10 years as being 81000 .

"These 3 bridges are within 7 Kilometers of each other and I doubt if you would ever find such a stupid situation anywhere in Canada."

Try Quesnel .... three bridges .. two accross the Cottonwood one km apart. The circle route from the northwest shore of the river accross to the southeast shore, back over to the northwest shore is about 5 km long. That makes it shorter than the separation of the two bridges accross the Nechako.

You seem to have some sort of allergy to bridges. In this day of high energy costs and GHG emissions, bridges are a planning tool not only for convenience, but also for "green" planning.

If it were not for the geography we find ourselves in with limited access from the valley bottom to the plateau, we would have many more bridges given the short spans required and the likely closer proximity of the population. As it is, once we get out of the bowl, we essentially have a linear city - the Hart and HWY 16 up Peden Hill.

The Hart has the addition of Foothills, which at the moment is single loaded going up to Chief Lake Rd.

Hwy 16 has the addition of Ospika and University going up the escarpment, which is almost "bridge-like" since the access routes are limited and expensive to build, similar to a short river crossing. In fact, University is as expensive as a Cameron Street Bridge replacement. If Massey is taken up eventually, it will likely be just as expensive.

That being said, I too remain opposed to the Cameron Street bridge rebuild. Fix the thing. Bring in some people who know how to do it. It is not rocket science. $10million is far too expensive to replace such a bridge with an ugly sucker as they have planned.

BTW, the more you get to flat country, the more bridges you will see for a similar population base with population evenly spread out on both sides of the water and relatively narrow bodies of water.

Oh ... Kamloops has two rail bridges and 4 vehicular bridges - 3 with 4 lanes and one with 2 lanes. So they have one more bridge than we do if you count rail bridges. The three on the south side are about 3.6 km apart total with the two laner midway between the two furthest removed from each other.

Google Earth comes in handy sometimes. :-)

The Mayor and council are in a vacuum and have no accountability to the voting public. They are more of a threat to the city than that Mountain Pine Beetle.
A ONE million dollar clock is just another example of the stupidity we are forced to deal with.
A new police station to be built to the tune of 21.5 million (it will go up from there) is another example. And the top cop says they have such contol on crime in the city, but if you wouldn't mind, get the taxpayers to pay for more cops. If they can control with what they have-why more?
The Cameron street bridge should be upgraded, not replaced.
A Performing Art Centre would be great, but would it sustain itself? NO NO NO!
Nothing built by the city takes care of its own expenses.
755 city employees in a city of 77,000.
Rather excessive-but how many audits are performed to inform the residents they are a necessity as well as a liability?
We have not been proven to be a huge drawing card attracting new residents in many, many, years. Only the Mayor and council have a difficult time facing that fact, and continue exaggerating as to the numbers. Tell the truth, and shame the devil!
I am rather weary of the negative reports directed at this Mayor and Council. They are not respected, and there is never a "good news" story that ever has any meat on the bone and becomes a reality. Always some stupid spin, like that great project at 5th and Brunswick? or thereabouts. I quit paying much attention to Kinsleys great spins as nothing is believable after awhile. Like the ethanol plant-it all disappears into thick putrid polluted air.
I cannot ever see Prince George becoming a mega city with a great deal of promise. Not in our lifetime.
Yep, talks cheap, takes money to buy beer, and there are lots of outlets to buy that, and probably another one coming up out the Hart. Drinking, gambling, drug problem, crime, high taxes and fees, that's all I see on the drawing board.
Prince George will never be a tourist destination. Black flies, wasps, mosquitos, dust, pollution,and limited entertainment are not appealing to tourists. It just is not going to happen-and past years have proven this. Prince is a "drive through." Park in a parking lot overnight, and hit the road in the morning.
It may even be a good plan to get a few more homeless shelters in operation. Eventually Prince George may become too depressing even for the homeless.
I do not see how seniors can afford to live in the city independently. Have to have a fairly healthy bank account to fall back on, as pension cheques won't carry the load.
All the building may look good at the moment, but it takes a lot of money to support all these businesses, and it must come from the public.
Can we feel any sense of security?
One big flush, (like the closing of the pulp mills), and we might as well say,
"So long, and it wasn't even fun while it lasted."