KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
There was so much opposition to putting out another six-million-dollar bond to help pay for soaring costs of the new police station that the Kodiak City Council last night would not even vote to talk about it some more. A first reading of the ordinance that would have authorized letting the citizens of Kodiak vote on the bond failed on a 1-to-4 vote. Councilman Gabriel Saravia was the lone yes vote to bring the ordinance back in two weeks for a public hearing.
Councilman Tom Walters said he was not voting for the measure because it would mean too much debt for the city and “raise the blood pressure” of the citizens. He said he knew the Mill Bay site for the jail was going to cost more, but how much more took him by surprise:
— (Police Bond 1 21 sec “… dollar started a down, a spiraling down.”)
While Walters was sure after the vote that the city would somehow find the money from elsewhere – perhaps in the form of a larger contribution by the state for the jail portion of the building – Saravia (s’raw-VEE-ah) wasn’t as optimistic:
— (Police Bond 2 25 sec “…problem to our kids, and this is the bottom line.”)
City Manager Linda Freed said the plans for the building were almost done, and given the investment the city has already made, she’s going to continue trying to get the station built:
— (Police Bond 3 35 sec “… work on that site, and purchase of that property.”)
With the issue of putting the bond to a vote of the people shot down in flames, Freed recommended that the agenda items proposing to pay for the bond with an increased tax on alcohol likewise be failed, and they both did on identical zero-to-5 votes.
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