A lot of things stuck in my craw this past year. The 2 major items were the proposed arena and the state of the Bangor Police Dept.
On the arena front, support for this project is pretty much split down the middle. I've been to a few shows in Massachusetts this past month, and have seen some first class venues. Boy, a nice new building similar to the DCU Center in Worcester, or the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, NH would be awesome. I looked into the upcoming event schedules at both of these places and found a common thread. That being major sport team affiliates. Hockey and basketball teams are filling these places a good chunk of Feb and March. Sure there are a few shows scheduled, big names like Sir Elton John are coming, but that's not the bread and butter of these facilities. Bangor will need something going on almost daily to fill the arena and defray operating costs. I don't see Mike Dyer working that hard. He hasn't in the past, why would he now? The plan to hire an outside group to run this place is a step in the right direction. However, that was tried before at the old Mecca, and as soon as a profit was shown by the operator, the City Council pulled the plug in a mad revenue grab. Maybe we'll have better luck this time around, if its even built. I love the idea of a new facility, but paying for it is another story. The budget proposals and forecasting done by the City are not conservative enough, and the anticipated operating costs are inaccurate and low for sure. Lots of smoke and mirrors going on in the funding-budget process. Numerous folks came forward to ask about the numbers. They wanted to see the "real" numbers in writing, a little transparency if you will. Not much straight talk from the Council. Gerry Palmer admitted that the website was a mess and could use work, but never really answered the question on accountability. Bottom line is, unless a semi-pro team drops from the sky, this project is not feasible and will cost the taxpayers in the end. That's the rear-end for sure.
On the Police Dept side, where do I begin? First off, we had to get those 4 new officers or the City would go to hell in a hand basket. So now we'll be stuck with those salaries in a few years once the Federal grant runs out. Make no bones about it, the City has an excellent force, and cops from surrounding towns would love to sign up. The raise in pay alone makes this a good place to work. However, lets look at the math here people. I'll round things off to make it easy. Lets say on officer makes $50k a year (thats way low folks). With four new officers, that makes it $200k per year. As a recent article in the Bangor Daily pointed out, these positions are ofter held for 20+ years. Add it all up and its 4 million dollars over 20 years. Not to mention the cost of living raises, etc. to jack this up to almost 6 million. Thats a pretty good chunk of change thats not in the budget yet. The Chief has no idea how he's going to pay this bill when it comes due in 3 years. Of course, he could step up parking enforcement.........The bottom line is, the Chief sucks at his job. He has no control over his team. His officers make no bones about performing personal errands (aka: voting) while on duty. I even saw one officer playing solitare on his laptop while sitting in a "speed trap" on Union St. Lets not forget about the killing of Greenie over Labor Day. The Chief and DA are really treading water on this one. They know who the 5 young men involved are, as do most of the people around town. It was pretty ironic to see a story on the murder on page one of the BDN, and another story concerning the main suspect's basketball skills at Bates College in the sports section. A massive cover-up from day 1. This young man has close family ties to the Penobscot County Sherriffs Dept, so we can see where this is going. 2 of the other "witnesses" ( suspects) are sons of a School Dept head, so no charges for them either. This is total bullshit. The Chief is cowering to the DA, and the cover up continues. If these had been transients, they would be in jail right now, awaiting trail. But they are from well-to-do families, so they get to spend the holidays out drinking with friends. Lets hope they dont kill anyone over New Years...
That being said...I'll see you downtown at midnight.
