I attended the meeting held Wednesday evening, June 12 for the purpose preserving the 1954 building, in the courthouse complex. I spoke up at this meeting knowing I would be cannon fodder, and probably would change no one’s mind. However, I am of the firm opinion that if a new building would not cost more than $500,000 more than remodeling the ’54 building, the most economical long-term solution will be to build new. While I was accused of putting my personal spin on the issues it must be recognized that all parties involved are putting their personal spin on what is becoming an emotional issue. The following comments were made at the meeting. The statements of fact, I believe, are all accurate, with no spin.

Statement: The county commissioners were trying to slip tearing the ’54 building down past the community.

Fact: By law, every commissioners’ meeting and work shop is open to the public. The minutes of every commissioners’ meeting are printed in the Albert Lea Tribune. If you do not know what is going on, it is your own fault.

Statement: The 1954 building is sound.

Fact: A sound building can be very inefficient to staff and to maintain.

Fact: The cost of a building is minor when compared to the long-term costs of labor, benefits, upkeep and maintenance. A properly designed, new building should pay for itself in labor and energy savings. Unless you have run a business where labor and energy are a large part of your costs, you may not understand the true impact these two items have on your total costs.

Statement: The 1954 building was updated with a new roof in the mid-1980s.

Fact: Most roofs have a 20-year life. If the roof was installed in the mid-’80s we are only a few years away from a needing a new one. How old are the heating plant and air conditioning units, plumbing, electrical system, etc.? How well do they function now? Are they efficient as possible? Can they handle the new load? What will be the true cost to update these areas?

Statement: You never know when we may need a bomb shelter in the future.

Fact: The 1954 building would never have served as an adequate bomb shelter. The design was not proper.

Statement: The proposed new building would have less space than the ’54 building.

Fact: True, but gross space does not necessarily equal efficient work space. The ’54 building has a great deal of wasted space.

Statement: The community cannot afford additional taxes.

Fact: No one likes taxes. However, since the state lottery was implemented, Freeborn County residents have spent in the area of $33,000,000 on lottery tickets. The lottery is nothing more than a voluntary state tax, and this amount does not count the money spent on pull tabs and at the casinos. The last report I saw placed Freeborn County right at the top of the list on the amount of money spent per capita on gambling in the state. There is apparently no shortage of money, or we have a lot of residents with problems.

Statement: If the community applied for a state or federal grant to fix up the old courthouse we simply would be spending our own tax money.

Fact: Yes, your tax money funds these grants, but if the city and county does not make an effort to get some of our tax money returned to the county it will simply go to some area that was more visionary and aggressive. Your tax dollar may be helping to restore a courthouse in Mississippi.

Fact: This is going to be a sore point, with many of the individuals who object to spending the money necessary to do the job right the first time are older farmers. While it is a fact that without the farm programs we would have no farm community, and Albert Lea would be in even more dire straits, but everyone pays the taxes that make these programs possible. I fully support these programs as everyone in the country benefits. These programs keep the country’s food costs down, and our farmers from going bankrupt. We are all benefiting from the taxes someone else pays.

Statement: Restoring the old courthouse will not bring any money to town or help revive business in the downtown.

Fact: An unknown, but I do know that during the twenty years I traveled with Olympic Sports, while I was in meetings, my wife and other wives would tour the local area, and spent their share of money to support the local economy &045; restored historic buildings being high on their list of things to do and see. Historic buildings are an attraction.

Fact: With the new high school, the medical center just off the north end of Broadway and a efficient, good-looking courthouse, with the 1887 portion restored on the south end of the old business district, we will have the book ends to begin revitalizing the downtown area.

Fact: Unless we as a community eliminate the present negative attitude and get aggressive Albert Lea will continue to deteriorate.

Statement: The ’54 building could be remodeled very cheaply and there would be no need to move employees out for the small amount of asbestos.

Fact: Properly done, no remodeling job is cheap. The most expensive remodeling job of all would be an ongoing Band-Aid approach.

Fact: Where asbestos is concerned, the liability risks are far too high to remodel the building with the staff working in the building. Can we afford the risk that no one will claim asbestos related injury?

Statement: The current courthouse meets ADA standards, everything else is spin.

Fact: As it stands today the courthouse does not meet ADA standards. The improvements necessary to bring it even to minimum compliance have not been implemented. Perhaps the county will not be cited, but why wait until we make state headlines when the ADA activists elect to make it an issue, and we have to pay to defend ourselves?

Fact: The lack of compassion and concern being expressed for our handicapped citizens, many of whom are veterans and senior citizens, is appalling.

Statement: Albert Lea has a declining population and cannot justify or afford to spent any money on long-term projects.

Fact: This is your community. If you truly believe it is dying, it will. However, if we are willing to quit feeling sorry for ourselves, and have the courage to seize the moment, this community can still have a great future. The negative voices will do nothing to move the community forward.