Sometimes it really does make sense to spend money in the short run to save it in the long run.
Gloucester, unfortunately, doesn't have any money to spend in the short run, let alone over the long haul. That doesn't mean a discussion about a reorganization and realignment of City Hall and the city's police and fire department buildings at a multi-million-dollar cost would be a pointless exercise.
As noted in a report issued last week by Community Development Director Sarah Garcia and an ad-hoc committee, the current arrangement of municipal facilities, spread across multiple locations, is inefficient and expensive.
So it is worthwhile to have a plan in place when money does become available, to make city services function more efficiently and effectively. If Congress does pass what President Obama is calling a "jobs bill" — but what in reality is simply a second stimulus bill — there might be money available long before the city could afford it on its own, especially if it has a plan that is "shovel ready."
The report, which was authored by Garcia but developed by an 11-member ad hoc group of city officials, presents two broad options. One would move city offices to the Fuller School building off Blackburn Circle, and build a new combined police and fire station adjacent to it. The other would expand office space in and around City Hall, creating a kind of municipal campus.
Either option would be expensive. The report estimates that a move of municipal offices to the Fuller building would cost $6.8 million, while renovating and expanding the City Hall campus would cost $5.2 million. Add the cost of new police and fire facilities to that, and the total is estimated at $12.3 million.
Either option would likely be controversial as well. Some residents believe passionately that the useful life of City Hall as a municipal center is long past, and it is time to sell it, with historic preservation covenants in place, in the hope that it might become a museum of local history and culture.
They also note that the downtown police station is on some prime real estate that could generate significant tax revenue if it was privately owned. Finally, they point out that there is much more space for parking at the Fuller site than there is downtown.
Others believe just as passionately that municipal offices should be downtown, within walking distance of low-income and elderly housing. They also argue that putting public safety departments off Blackburn Circle could cause problems if there is an emergency during times of heavy traffic.
Still, even with those hurdles — and even with an inevitable lack of early consensus — the report is timely, because it is time to confront the problem. An audit of the Police And Fire departments last year simply confirmed what is obvious to everyone — that those facilities need major renovation or replacement.
Despite the ongoing restoration project, the historic City Hall building may have better uses than as a hub of city government as well. Two years after it served its last elementary or middle school student, the Fuller School building remains grossly underutilized as a city facility. And, despite having space at Fuller, the city continues to lease room for its building and economic development offices on Pond Road.
Talk of exploring new headquarters for Gloucester's public safety departments and City Hall is hardly new. Officials have wrestled for years with getting a handle on all the potential changes — with nothing coming of any of it.
That can't happen this time. Mayor Carolyn Kirk has called for another round of "listening post" meetings to get a sense of what the community wants. And she should launch those as soon as possible.
The city needs to be ready with a plan that has a significant measure of public support, so that if federal money does become available, it is poised to reel it in at a moment's notice.
The new city study is a good starting point toward that goal.
