(PIC)Mayor Matt Block and Police Chief Darwin Williams recent publicity stroll/photo op through Laurinburg City Hall appears designed to make sure sufficient 'cover' is in place prior to shifting gears in favor of the new $5.5 million City Hall/Police Complex.

<span style="color: #0000ff;"><span style="color: #000000;">City Manager Charles Nichol's statement that <em>'If it’s not now, it’s going to be in five years or 10 years', </em>was disingenuous and just plain wrong.
</span></span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;"><span style="color: #000000;">If things don't change, Laurinburg is only going to need a tiny office in <em>5 or ten years</em>, as it's presently headed toward becoming a pastoral, rural ghost village'. Businesses are closing, those who can are selling out and fleeing, as they try to outrun a growing tidal wave of violent crime.</span>
</span>

This entire new City Hall rumpus only got wings and started flying after the City commissioned its 2013 'Needs Assessment'. It's great to have a list of needs, but <strong>this is not and has never been about 'needs'</strong>, it's about what Laurinburg can afford, or in this case, <strong>cannot afford</strong>.

The Exchange's recent piece '<span style="color: #0000ff;">Tour Aids in new City Hall talks</span>' was <em>not news</em>, but what looks like thinly disguised propaganda to help move the new City Hall/Police Complex forward. There simply are no '<em>talks'</em> going on. City Council has done everything possible to cut off public dialogue. The only <em>talking</em> that's going on is between the City and itself.

No amount of propaganda, hoodwinking or financial razzmatazz is going to make this dog hunt.
<blockquote>"<em>123</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;">Read more...</span></blockquote>
This article: http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/4588/tour-aids-in-new-city-hall-talks

<span style="color: #0000ff;">LE ARTICLE:</span>
<p class="entry-title"><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Tour aids in new City Hall talks</span></strong></p>
<span style="color: #0000ff;">Though he refrained from opining on the Laurinburg City Council’s City Hall situation, Laurinburg Police Chief Darwin Williams presented his case for additional space to Mayor Matthew Block.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">Williams and Assistant Chief Cliff Sessoms walked through the department with Block, City Manager Charles Nichols, and City Council member Dee Hammond on Friday morning to point out areas where its physical facilities could stand to be improved.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">“I would say we have space needs in personnel and evidence and files. We’ve grown since I came aboard in ‘94,” said Williams. “We’ve been juggling things around over here; we just don’t complain because our job is to get out in the community and fight crime.”</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">The city council is currently exploring the feasibility of a new municipal building to house the police department and city hall, based in part on a 2013 space needs study indicating thee need for 22,000 square feet to house various city departments.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">“There’s a need for something to be done, with safety, security, space and all that tied in,” Nichols said. “If it’s not now, it’s going to be in five years or 10 years. The chief’s not lobbying for a brand spanking new building; I haven’t heard that from myself or any of the staff. It’s just knowing from everybody’s day to day operations.”</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">Between the current municipal building, which was dedicated in 1958, and the W. Charles Barrett administration building next door, the city has 15,000 square feet available.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">Issues in the police department highlighted on Friday varied from the electrical — with several adaptations in place to avoid blown fuses and circuit breakers that trip when multiple appliances are connected — to a shortage of space to allow for the convenient separation of juvenile and adult offenders.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">With a 45-member police department, the four-man gang unit is housed in a single small office and the canine officer is relegated to a miniature desk in the corner of the conference room.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">Williams also pointed out that evidence, which in some cases must be kept indefinitely, is stored offsite and in several locations throughout the department including detectives’ offices.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We have no choice. We’ve got to keep it up here,” said Williams. “Just like with the evidence from the crime scene … when the innocence projects come up, they want to review all pertinent evidence in the case.”</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">The police department cannot be kept completely secure as the open door that connects it with the city tax and finance departments cannot be locked in accordance with fire code. Restroom facilities in the police department are available to other city employees as well as the public, also posing a security risk.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">“They have gone through light and water and we never knew they were there,” said Sessoms. “We have found people wandering the halls.”</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">Block, who when campaigning was outspoken in opposing the city hall proposal, questioned whether or not the issues raised justify the expense of a new facility.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">“With the state of the city and its finances, is it critically necessary or can we make do?” he said.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">“These are all very valid issues, but it’s not like the police department’s doubling in size with people falling all over each other. Nothing’s really changed in the last five or 10 years to say this building is absolutely inadequate for our needs.”</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">Last month, the city council authorized staff to begin negotiating a contract with Edifice, Inc. of Charlotte so that council can consider the actual costs involved with building a new city hall.</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We still don’t even know if we can finance this through the Local Government Commission, we don’t know how much it’s going to cost,” Hammond said. “We don’t know if we can borrow the money. There’s still a lot of things to look at there, but we’ve got to make the decision if we want to go that far with it.”</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">_ _ _ _ _</span>

<span style="color: #0000ff;">END OF LE ARTICLE</span>

Sources:

Laurinburg Exchange (Link: http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/4588/tour-aids-in-new-city-hall-talks)

<center>*** EMBED VIDEO HERE ***</center><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">HIDE: Author box and Related Posts on side --&gt;</span></strong>

<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <a href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">email</span></a>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]

&nbsp;
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We'd love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>
&nbsp;
<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>

<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>