Quincy City Council dumps a wicked expensive dog log on local taxpayers

– News about Quincy Massachusetts from Quincy Quarry News

Current City of Quincy Animal Shelter
Quincy Quarry News Photo

Last night the Quincy City Council Finance Committee voted to recommend spending an additional fifteen million dollars to replace the current Quincy Animal Control building, roughly three times more in total than what the council said was too much money five years ago when the Koch Maladministiion floated a $7.1 million cocktail napkin of a plan five years ago and so cut the ask in half.

In 2017, the council found a then projected $300 per square foot cost exorbitant. 

Now, however, the supplicants on the City Council would appear to be posed to provide their final approval to spend over $1,300 per square foot to build a new animal control facility and so setting a gobsmacking record for a project cost overrun.

The key reason for replacing the current facility is that slated to be taken out of service so as to accommodate construction of the currently over $150 million plan to replace the current Quincy Police Department headquarters.

“It’s all COVID’s fault”
A still image from a YouTube video

$3.5 million in funds already approved in 2017 to design a new animal control building has been fully spent on planning and thus the administration is now coming back for an additional fifteen large.

Additionally note that another million has been spent from funds approved for the pending new police headquarters to remodel another building for use as a temporary venue for the city’s nimal control operations as planning the proposed new facility has been thoroughly koched-up and thus now well behind schedule.

Way behind schedule.

Granted, while the temporary animal control building is slated to be repurposed as a Public Buildings Department maintenance facility, with but minimal expense and redesign of the currently on pause new police headquarters, the current animal control building could be readily repurposed for short money for the Public Buildings Department’s needs, not to mention so locate the maintenance operations on a site not prone to high water event flooding as is the site of the impending temporary animal control facility and then to be recycled for Public Buildings’ use.  

So what, apparently, for the fact that temporary siting the city’s animal control and subsequently to become the Public Buildings’ maintenance shops in a regularly enough flooded during high water events location is yet a further confirmation as to how Q’ed up is the whole of the plan.

What happens to Quincy taxpayers’ dollars
Image via cheat.sheet.com

Further, the near $20 million to be spent to effect a new animal control facility will run close to what Father BIll’s is planning to spend on its impending new facility for homeless humans on both a total cost basis as well as on a cost per “guest” housed basis.

And speaking of costs, last night at Large City Councilllor Anne Mahoney pointed out how the Town of Milton is currently planning to build a new animal control facility for less money. 

Much less money as well as that Milton’s animal control facility has been designed by the same lead designer retained by the Koch Maladministration.

How much less?

The original plan for a new Milton animal control building was expected to run $5 million for an admittedly smaller facility. 

Even so, Milton officials said to go back to the drawing board and the so revised new plan is expected to run less, if not much less, than $3 million.

In turn, after duly adjusting for size differences between the two pending facilities, the pending Quincy facility will be costing over three times as much on a per square foot basis than what far more prosperous Milton is planning to spend on its impending new animal control facility.

Milton’s anonymous donor
A generic avatar image

Actually, most to essentially all of what will be spent to build a new animal control facility in Milton is going to be funded by an anonymous donor.

Conversely, as so far no donated or other outside money of any real consequent is anticipated to be coming Quincy’s way, Quincy homeowners will thus be looking at an annual de facto surcharge on their property tax bills on the order of at least $25 for 30 years on the average assessed value local residence to pay off the local municipal bond debt that will need to be issued to pay for the proposed Quincy Animal Control complex.. 

Even worse, the cost accountants on the Quincy Quarry’s Financial and other affairs desk are pro forma projecting at least $300,000 annual increase in operating and maintenance costs for the proposed Quincy facility and which works out to a further $8 annual surcharge on the average homeowner’s property tax bill for, well, forever.

Before the likely hire of at least a third employee to work in the City’s Animal Control Department as well as the additional cost of providing the de rigueur personal city ride, that is.

Anticipated electircal wiring scheme
A file photo

On a bright note, however, there was much talk by the Koch Machine’s mouthpiece that a field of electricity-generating solar panels is planned and so expected to greatly mitigate to perhaps fully offset the energy costs of the proposed animal control facility. 

Then again, in typical koched-up fashion, the plan is to put the panels in an existing and attractive meadow space and then offset the resultant negative impact on plant life by opting for going with an expensive so-called “green roof” over the proposed animal control building.

So what, apparently, that it would be way more practical as well as less expensive to leave the meadow be and instead put the solar panels on the roof of the animal control building.  Plus, such would make for a less to much less likely to leak roof.

Similar dubious as well as costly features include the extensive use of stone per the current plans for the facility and so pay through taxpayers’ noses an homage to the site’s history as a one-time quarry even though granite has not been quarried in Quincy for more than just a few decades and thus the stone will have to be outsourced.

Further yet calling question to the plans is how the facility’s designer acknowledged that he knew of no animal control facility that included facilities for police K9’s.

Show Mayor Koch a pretty rendering, get the design gig!
An old Columbia Pictures image

Unfortunately not asked last night if the designer knew of any recently built taxpayers funded animal control facility for a city with the relatively modest population of Quincy running anywhere near the nearly $20 million sought to be spent by the profligate Koch Maladministration.

Obvious other grave concerns include the potential for adverse interactions between police dogs and animals held in custody by Animal Control, not to mention the clear potential for infection as stray animals often suffer from contagious illnesses. 

Further problematic, the above concerns are further heightened by the fact that Quincy’s only  (officially, ed.) designated dog park will be adjacent to, if not also intertwined, with the animal control facility. 

Further yet note that however popular is the idea of developing dog parks, they are variously problematic. 

How problematic? 

For but one example, all but invariably the only dog park dog trainers will use is an EMPTY dog park.  Key reasons for doing so include that the ever-changing mix of dogs at a dog park encourages, if not also exacerbates, all manner of behavioral problems. 

As such, a far better, if not also infinitely better, way to socialize dogs is to arrange for dog play groups AND that these groups be compatible on such factors as comparable sizes and temperament. 

After all, dogs are pack animals and thus prefer to interact with their own as well as well-known to them posses of four-legged peeps.

Accordingly, many knowledgeable and savvy dog owners avoid dog parks as if they were rife with rabies and/or the distemper virus as, after all, dog parks could be as well as potentially also fraught with all manner of other things dangerous.

Does he want a piece of Tommy?
A Quincy Quarry News file photo

Regardless, Mayor Koch is bound and determined to press on with a woefully bad overall plan if for no other reason than to use tens of millions of taxpayers’ money to curry favor with a local demographic of voters who really should know better than to endorse a woefully bad master plan pimped by someone who as far as Quincy Quarry has been able to discern is not an animal person, a pet owner or at least is some other sort of animal savvy person whom a domesticated household animal most likely will not bite.

Then again, this is far from the first time Mayor Koch as decided to do something that actual experts would never opt to do except perhaps as a last result

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