opposition to ;new fire station and jail house

It Must Be THE LAKE WATER
By Bob Kyle, June 12 1957

MUCH SENTIMENT seems to be developing in opposition to ;new fire station and jail house

After the nrst anonymous blast of the ain't-it-a wful-Mable variety of what a deplorable fire station we have, sound conclusions are bing reached. Here ar some of them not mine picked up: The town can't afford a new combination fire station, jail and town hall which would cost upwards of $150,000 regardless of what picaynnish bake sales would bring; in, which after all would be paid for by the community and compete against taxpaying local merchants. And donated labor wouldn't help much, considering the cost of materials for anything substantial enough to last an amortization peniod say, of years.

The town hasn't demonstrated any too well its ability to main tain anything.

A few years ago a tractor was allowed to freeze up and be ruined, and a $10,000 fire truck is needed every 10 years or so.

The present fire station, although not a show place or a lavish club bouse, is still able to house the over-abundance of fire fighting equipment.

No jail is needed because none inhabit it except drunks sleeping-it-off who can take to the straw-pile When ny desperate characters come along the sheriff and state police toss them in the county clink.

The town hall has been refurbished and is certainly adequate, considering the lack of attendance at town board meetings.

To finance such a building would cause sharp increse in local tax levies which are alceady too high, considering ' that the budget has been so padded that accumulated $48,000 is lying idle drawing no Interest. Further more, too many watch-dogs mitigate against squandering' of monies on unneeded projects such as the State Tax Board, County Board of Review and County Council, and State Board of Accounts, all of whom would look with jaundiced eye at such lavishnesa.

If the town is going to spend money let them do it on the streets, alleys, sidewalks and curbs which really are in AWFUL condition, or on surface water drainage, or to unplug our comparatively new sewage lines, or place a canopy over the sewage plant to keep the detergent bubbles from smearing over the landscape and a steam boiler that would heat the sewage waste in winter so it be better digested in our less-than-perfect sewage disposal plant. There are a lot of things where money could be better spent.

Then there is that matter of getting up a petition. At least one town board member has expressed himself that he will thoroughly scrutinize every name signed to any petition, to see whethsr they are taxpayers and how much they pay, ' whether they owe delinquent water and sewer bills, whether they have a water meter deposit, or whether they don't have, a meter and only pay a minimum flat rate.

From now on the words are mine:

This latest fire station project presents myriad problems and shouldn't bs entered into hastily. It appears on the surface that the Maxlnkuckee Junior Woman s Club has been sold a bill of goods and have a project to big to handle. They turned' down the Beach Lodge management down because they were vyoung matrons with growing families and couldn't devote the time to such a three-month undertaking, whereas this building program would perhaps last for vears, with practically everyone in hock some place along the line.

Such enterprise and pluck is admirable - But!