The latest hot-button issue in Chelsea (brace yourself) is the building of a new Police station. The current station is infested with rodents and black mold, undersized, and generally not the kind of place anyone, much less a police department, should be working in.
But that won’t stop the NIMBYs from rallying around… their property values. Nope; this middle-class town can’t see past its own yard to fund a new station, with City Council chambers, for a growing city. They’re not even hiding it:
Robert Daniel, who lives within a block of the proposed location.
He admitted opposition started because he and other neighbors didn’t want a police station “in their back yard.”
You even used the words? Come on.
Nevermind that the City has been trying to get this station built since 1993. 17 years. And where would this site be? 305 S Main St. On the busiest street in town, at the current site of the City offices. You know, the street that is backed up from 3:30 to 6 pm every weekday. The street that every emergency vehicle going to or from Chelsea Hospital or I-94 uses every single day. But the opposition group cites “traffic concerns”.
As a voting citizen, I resent having City services hampered by a group who has a conflict of interest in the construction of a new station, who then cloaks that interest in the guise of fiscal responsibility. Their opposition is only adding expense as, now, the City has been tossed into yet another legal battle with its own citizens.
I urge City Council to ignore the planning commission’s vote and issue the $2.5 million in bonds needed to move the project forward. And if this issue does go to a vote, you can be sure I’ll be whipping up support in favor of it.
Citizen opposition may stall plan to build new Chelsea police station
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