Building Projects Worthy of Pharaoh Must be Controlled (Representatives, salaries, dollars)

[jbgusa]

A recent fire station expansion in the relatively small hamlet of Chappaqua, New York was voted down,,600+ to 105 in a rare defeat of a project. See Chappaqua voters reject fire station expansion.This only happened when a local paper highlighted the expense, the building of a nine-bedroom suite and two meeting rooms into the fire house, and extremely limited voting hours, from 6:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. on October 25, 2016.

In my own school district, which has maybe 1600 students from K-12, the authorities are about to propose a $45,000,000 bond issue. 90% of it is to make improvements which are concededly needed at the elementary school. But one wonders if it could be done more economically. The authorities point to an alleged requirement that all kindergarten and first grade classrooms have attached bathrooms. On a separate note one wonders what our elected representatives in Albany were or are doing but that's another issue. Even handicapped access laws are draconian. But the real blame probably should go to the committees that plan these projects. They think about what they want for a project or may be desirable but don't think much about cost, until a project is defeated at the polls. This happened in nearby Port Chester.

In New York City the Port Authority is looking at options to relocate the bus terminal. All are extremely expensive. So, what do we do to control this edifice complex? Something must change.

[Frank DeForrest]

Many fire depts are out of control with millions of dollars of equipment, salaries, pensions, lavish fire houses, etc., but heaven forbid you criticize the heroes. It's simply what happens when money to fund things is taken from people by force. In govt there is no accountability.
Security, education and fire should be privatized.

[mtl1]

I've never called the fire dept over a fire in my life. I've seen fires in areas I was living, probably people burning their own property. And even had grass fires on my property when I lived in the country, we beat it back ourselves or let it burn out, and I'm not saying the fire department isn't needed. But I just vote down all the levies and bond issues. I know these are local issues, but until the government in general does something about "free" trade and mass immigration, we middle class can't afford to pay for anything else.

Oh yeah, I have called the fire dept, for an ambulance for a relative, but they billed me for that. Plus their sort of arrogant attitude kind of turned me off from voting to be taxed.