It seems to me that we are missing several important issues and just accepting the placement of the new county jail in downtown Eau Claire as a done deal. During the entire process there has been an outpour of location opposition from the public. They have politely been given their opportunity to speak and then ignored. Downtown Eau Claire is not the appropriate location to try to shoe-horn in this structure… but no matter what is said ~ the band plays on. Aside from the new discovered additional costs in the neighborhood of ½ to 1.5 million dollars for piers or some type of enhanced foundation needed to build the jail in the otherwise unstable ground, the county will also be spending unreported hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on a secondary skin and cosmetic façade towers to make the jail look like it is not a jail….. The large expanse of windows overlooking the riverfront & bike trail are all added cost and will not actually show in the cell blocks located in the building inside the façade.
These absurdities go well to compliment the fact that the city spent almost 2 years developing a comprehensive plan that allowed for protection of the homes on Lake St and the creation of a Court House Campus in that area ~ not a 4 story jail. The city has purchased land along the riverfront….. added bike & walking trails, and has spent enormous sums in developing the river front and Phoenix Park … all now to be overshadowed by the downtown county jail.
And this initial project can by no means considered complete. After the enormous fancy faced jail is squeezed into the site, the county’s parking problem will be increased. Even before counting the added staff that will be needed to man the 2 story jail (they are not in the budget by the way) there will only be a net increase of 15 parking spaces…. And with the jail planned to be able to go up to 4 stories high and a new court house planned to remove homes on Lake St … when do you think the parking ramp will be added to the tax rolls?
I feel like we need R2-D2 to say …. “Obie-One my City – you are our only hope”. The County board with its normal back to the public has ignored the public opposition & rejected the idea of allowing for a Referendum on spending the 59.1 million initially budgeted for this project. (That is close to $100,000,000 without cost overruns by the time it is outdated and paid for) The public’s last hope and only opportunity to speak out against this project, lies with the City. The land still needs to be re-zoned and the City’s new Comprehensive Plan will have to be changed in order to allow the building of this monstrosity to continue. The money spent to date can be easily re-couped by the County, and the City can say NO!!! … the jail does not belong downtown.
Several county residents have already started to form a group calling for Accountability in the Jail Expansion project and it is very likely that the City Council will be forced to overcome a Super-Majority vote in order to approve the necessary re-zoning. If the Plan Commission & City Council are affected by an enraged public and the re-zoning does not pass….. then the County will be forced to consider other alternatives that would be less detrimental to downtown Eau Claire.
So if you are outraged by location of a Downtown fancy skinned jail along the river or by the rejection of you having a voice by referendum in the expenditure of such a large sum of tax dollars > call the City Council. If you think the long term plans of a 4 story jail and a new court house and the removal of the Lake St homes is not in the best interest of our downtown development efforts > call your City Council. If you feel that the County Board should turn their chairs around and face the public and listen to their constituents then send them a message > call the City Council and tell them to reject the Re-zoning and not to change the City’s Comprehensive Plan…… And why you are on the phone or sending e-mails, let the County Board hear from you. You may have spoken before and been ignored …. but it ain’t over till Yogi Bear sings.
