There’s a poorly kept rumour in the community that the municipality is looking at spending $5-6 million or so to buy a currently empty building that once held a prominent private business, and convert it into a new Fire and Protective Services headquarters.
OK, it would be great to have a new fire hall and a central location to house emergency services vehicles, staff and equipment. OK, it would give our emergency services quite an Edge on disaster prevention. And OK, it might seem like a simple plan to at least Probe the idea of moving into a large building instead of Fording through new construction planning and headaches. But perhaps council has been looking more at the celebration Fiesta of moving into a pretty building rather than Focusing on the lost opportunity it would mean for potential new economic development.
Council should be Mavericks and do something out-of-this world, maybe out of this Galaxie to draw new business to the community instead of swooping in like a Raptor or a Falcon on a wounded target.
Perhaps they could buy the building at a reduced rate, then go on a mission to find the right buyer — like elite army Rangers seeking out targets — and offer potential buyers some Fusion of a deal combining incentives and much-needed tax dollars to draw in a more suited business for the building.
This idea would be a model for other developers to build the the economy back up. It could be Model A ... but we could run the alphabet all the way to Model T if we had to, for new ideas.
For example, perhaps council could Escort a local developer to a potential retailer who would like the building, and then Flex some municipal muscles with the commercial realty office that has been trying to sell the property for the last three years to reduce the sale price of the building. We bet the realty holding company would be willing to Escape the debt of carrying the building.
If our leaders of business and community were to draw some new Contours around the issue, some great ideas might fall towards them like a Meteor shower.
OK, so it would take some work, and OK, it might be a long-play — a bit of an Expedition — but it's better than jumping into the ring like a bucking Bronco and perhaps making things Five Hundred-times worse than they are. Looking for a better fit for the building could be an Excursion worth taking to help draw more commercial business (and the customer traffic it can create) to the community that we all have a Super Duty to promote and invest in.
