In response to Nathan Colquhoun's column "SPS Building: This isn’t safety, it’s empire-building."
Dear Editor,
I could not agree more with Nathan Colquhoun on the matter of a new police station. What bothers me the most is why this project is not being led by the the City of Sarnia's Engineering Staff?
The police station belongs to the City and not to the SPS. Counci should therefore decide what will be provided to the SPS to meet its needs.
While land should be set aside in the event that a new building is needed the actual decision as to what is needed should be up to City Counci with the help of its Staff. This should ensure that an optimum, and not inflated, solution is arrived at that does not contain unjustifiable SPS wants as opposed to needs. This requires that the leadership for this be taken out of the hands of the user and placed under the responsibility of a disinterested competent party, namely the Ciy's Engineering Department.
City Council should direct Staff to tale over all future responsibility for this project. Staff should employ the necessary resources to thoroughly evaluate all the alternatives for providing adequate housing for the SPS both now and in the future. It should then present their findings to City Council for their decision.