Updated. Bond issues, no matter how meritorious, become harder to pass during times of economic decay. With banks failing, unemployment increasing, inflation growing, hard working people losing their homes — I think we're in the initial stages of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression — this is one of those times. That's why I'm not optimistic that the bond issues for a new fire hall in Evergreen ($4.4 million), a new county-wide 911 center ($6.9 million), and critial lands conservation ($10 million), will pass.
There's no doubt in my mind that the new fire hall and 911 center are needed. Evergreen's current fire hall is old, inadequate, perhaps unsafe; see Keriann Lynch's fine story, Evergreen Fire Makes Plea for New Station, in the Flathead Beacon. And last year I endorsed a county-wide 911 center while raising questions about judgment of the 911 board.
I’m far from convinced, however, that the conservation bond enjoys, or should enjoy, a comparable urgency.
The Evergreen bond, which seems reasonable, is already before the voters in a mail-in ballot election that began in early September and concludes on 23 September. This is a first bite of the apple election, a preemptive strike against the 911 center and conservation bonds. It's authors think the bond has a better chance of being approved if it's not on the same ballot as the other two issues. I'm not sure that's a winning strategy — but I am sure it's a strategy that will generate much ill will between the Evergreen Fire Department and the 911 board if the fire hall bond passes and the 911 center bond does not.
The 911 board, in a commendable decision, put the 911 center question on the ballot for the general election that ends on 4 November. But the decision was announced on 11 September, a month before early balloting begins. That's not much time to make the case for a project that's sure to be controversial given the wide disparity in costs estimates:
Entering the summer, [911 project coordinator Mark] Peck had been doing his own calculations, coming up with a soft estimate of $2.9 million for a 6,000-square-foot center on state land south of the U.S. Forest Service building, which is just south of Glacier High School.
Since then, CTA Architect Engineers mapped out designs, concluding that to cover every conceivable cost would be $6.9 million.
That is for an 11,800-square-foot extra-hardened building, which would include a four-bay equipment storage structure. It also includes the land costs, multiple communications systems, backup systems in case the main systems fail, and specialized air venting to keep the equipment in top shape. $6.9 million bond issue proposed, Daily Interlake, 11 September 2008.
Presumably, the center is being designed to withstand the maximum credible earthquake for this area. But is it also being designed to withstand blast damage? Is the ventilation system intended to filter out the weapons of germ and chemical warfare? Does the county want to build a terror-proof structure? I can't rule out the possibility that a terrorist attack might occur in the Flathead — no one can — but I can say with absolute confidence that the odds of a terrorist attack in the Flathead are vanishingly small, orders of magnitude lower than the odds of an earthquake or a thousand-year blizzard, and that it doesn't make sense to spend money on systems to combat improbable threats just because you never know (PDF 10 MB) what might happen.
Update. The center is indeed being designed to withstand a "man made disaster," which is a euphemism for a terrorist attack:
…The complex would also be fenced with one public and one alternate entrance.
“In the event of a natural or man-made disaster, this hub needs to be up and operating continually,” said Corey Johnson of CTA Architects Engineers.
The concrete building would be partly covered by a hill slope. Barriers would be erected outside so a car cannot ram the building. Office spaces would be set up south of the main dispatch room so the dispatch room could expand into them in the future. FBIA will coordinate proposal, Daily InterLake, 11 September 2008.
The $11.3 million-dollar question is whether the residents of Evergreen, not the wealthiest of the Flathead’s precincts, will support both the 911 center and Evergreen fire hall bonds. If the fire hall bond passes, residents of Evergreen will be socked with a tax increase of $136 for a $200,000 home. Will they be willing to pony up another $12 for the 911 center? Will they choose to tack on another $19 for the conservation bond? I have my doubts.
That leaves the $10 million conservation bond that the county commissioners, at the behest of conservation and farm protection organizations, voted to put on the 4 November ballot. If passed, the county would spend the money to purchase some lands, and buy conservation easements on other lands. See Michael Richeson's story, Land bond approved for ballot, in the 1 August 2008 Daily InterLake. Conservation easements can be an effective tool for preserving open space, but it's hard to justify raising real estate taxes for this kind of initiative during a period of economic decay and uncertainty. The conservation bond's proponents think the issue will pass. I do not.