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Those who want to save RTC need to find a tenant
Published 10:23am Monday, May 7, 2012I love the sight of those buildings. They are the product of people who took pride in their work and what they were doing when they built it, maintained it, performed their duties caring for and ministering to the many patients over the years. It was built in a time when we had higher standards of pride in ourselves, our communities, our country, and we expected certain levels of decency and character from the members of our ccommunity.
But the people who built the Kirkbride and worked there weren’t the whiney and uninformed bunch you who defend it have become. If anyone comes here to inform you that the council have only a certain amount of time to meet and gather info from the players in this drama, and the allotted time expires and the members have to adjourn, but will reschedule another meeting to consider and evaluate other possibilities and A NEW PROPOSAL WHICH HAD JUST ARRIVED AND THEY HAD NOT YET READ, what is the reaction from the audience of victims who aren’t getting the answers that they want for a knight in shining armor to throw money in a pit to keep the audience of vitims happy? They whine and pule and froth at the mouth and yell, “Conspiracy!!! Outrage!!! We want what we want and we want it now and sombebody better come up with however much money it takes for us to have our toys!!”
I have had my share of times when I was upset with the council, and have ripped them here when they deserve it, but it is obvious that they are doing what they are allowed to do within the constraints of the law, the dictates of schedules and deadlines, the obligations they have to not encumber the city with financial obligations which are not covered by mechanisms to pay for those expenditures, and deal with an economic environment in which few developers are willing to risk money when they are uncertain what the national government plans to pull on them next in the way of regulations, fees, taxes, hordes of protestors rampaging through the streets because they don’t believe they are getting their share of the pie. If you want to insult someone and rage that you aren’t getting your way with the RTC, go camp on the White House lawn and scream at the people inside.
Geez, I want to keep the RTC as much as any of you, but I am beginning to think I am on the side of nasty spoiled brats. Dave Adams may send you a message you don’t want to deal with, but how do you react when he shoots a jolt of reality your way? You want to trample the messenger.
If you are really serious about saving the RTC, YOU round up a developer. Get on all your social networks and spread the word. And don’t just sluff off this suggestion, as you know that a half dozen people can get in youtube or other venues and shoot out something which goes viral. I believe the council and city staff are doing all that they are legally able to find a developer. So help them find one if you really want to save the RTC. There are only a few of them, most have jobs, families, but there are ten times as many of you who could be hitting the keyboards right now. Get clicking, you might turn something up.
Camilla Ryan
Fergus Falls
Tags: Regional Treatment Center
Camilla, I do not believe that the people who are advocating for the repurposing of the RTC are “nasty spoiled brats”. I believe they are more so people, just like me, who cannot believe that such a large part of Fergus Falls’ history is even being considered to be put on the chopping block. The city was granted a large sum of money ($4 million I believe) to either repurpose the RTC or demolish it. You and Dave may cry “Show me the money!” but I am going to cry “We have, what happened to it!?”
When I bring friends to Fergus who are not from the area, I always drive them by the RTC because it is on my way home from the interstate. All of them are dreadfully fascinated by it. Many of them are disapointed they cannot go on tours, as the dates I come home are typically not coordinated with tour days. I believe the business potential is definitely out there. The funds are (or at least used to be) there to develop it into something useful. Where did it all go?
In other news, stop with the name calling. You look awfully stupid and ignorant when you name call and suggest that anyone that disagrees with you (or just acts differently) is a nasty spoiled brat.
Hey, Brendan, check some of the posts by RTC supporters in other threads in this venue, and you will see several supporters acting like spoiled brats. They use words such as morons and idiots for those who pose hard questions such as where do we get the money for what they want?, or why does the council insist on potential developers showing the financial wherewithal to actualize their plans when the council could just turn over this valuable property on their blind trust that the developer will and can perform? It is easy for the supporters to blithely demand that the council do something, anything, to give them what they want, but another thing altogether to accept the financial consequences and burdens on the taxpayers of such imprudent acts.
I see Camilla’s letter as a response to the rude and insulting tactics and speech of the Kirkbride supporters and a plea to them to act in civil and responsible ways before they alienate the people who share their desire to preserve the Kirkbride, but don’t want to be associated with a shrieking mob. I too want to save the Kirkbride, but there is no way I will join with a group who are spreading rumors that some members of the council want to demolish most of the RTC, but keep some choice parts for their own commercial use, or to make deals with potential buyers after the demolition. It has been rare when the five carry over council members from the ice arena outrage actually are working to protect the interests of the city taxpayers, but that is exactly what they are doing in regards to this issue.
You have said that you are an engineering major in university. OK, I assume that means you have some facility with computers and social networks in the cyber world. So, why do you not take some positive action and attempt to find a buyer, as Camilla suggests? Or , do you prefer to snuggle up in a warm fuzzy blanket of negativity and do nothing to assist in the resolution of this problem?
Jerome, if I had the time to search for developers and and the such, I would. Unfortunately, I do not. Instead, I choose to support those that do. The biggest thing that I have not understood regarding the RTC is the fact that money from the state already existed to repurpose the facility. Where did the millions allotted to this project go? I have a hard time believing that the council spent millions advertising for a developer.
As for associating yourself with the “nasty spoiled brats” that advocate for the preservation of the RTC via the DJ online comments, don’t even go there. Any reasonable person would realize that a few online commentators cannot possibly represent a city of nearly 15,000 people. Who are you to say what is in the best interest of the taxpayers when a majority of the taxpayers have not voiced their opinions?
If you are intimating that a majority of the voters IN FERGUS FALLS agree that anything, everything, should be done, no expense spared, to preserve the Kirkbride, then you have either been away at university too long, or your circle of acquaintances includes a limited percentage of people and families struggling to keep their heads above water in this economy, and who will have to pay the freight, the additional taxes, for an imprudent or financially risky action by the city council.
I repeat, I want to preserve the Kirkbride as much as anyone else, but the word from some prospective developers is that anyone who gets the property will spend anwhere from 8 to 12 million$$$ for asbestos removal and abatement before anything else is done to repurpose the buildings. And, unless the city can finagle a like sum from the state or the federal EPA for this same removal and abatement prior to demolition, the city will have to come up with those funds even to demolish the structures, though it is possible that the city could sell many of the materials from the buildings to specialty contractors and dealers. That kind of sale would not be available to developers if a condition of sale, as desired by friends of Kirkbride , was that the structure would be, essentially, uncompromised and whole.
Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t, and few speculators willing to assume that high a financial risk in a marketplace which has not got sufficient population or wealth to support the new businesses.
Now, if the feds, say the V.A. could be persuaded to buy it as a treatment facility for wounded such as those suffering from traumatic brain injury, that could save the place, though it is likely that an entirely new facility could be built for less than the cost of the asbestos abatement and the necessary reconfiguration of the structure’s plumbing, electrical, heating and ventilaion, air conditioning. Unfortunately, all the alternative options are more expensive than demolition.
More’s the pity, that.
Perhaps you missed where the city did spend some of the money doing abatement. If there is anything dangerous at the RTC is the vandals who manage to get in. In case you missed that last Council Meeting there were many who turned out for the Kirkbride, and the only one who commented in any way against it just didn’t want to see it on his tax bill. It seems to me that the likes of Jerome and of Dave are the ones who like to agitate and get people worked up. We however are only interested in bringing in people who can create jobs, and save a beautiful piece of architecture.
Jerome, I was not saying that everyone in Fergus wants to preserve the RTC with no expenses spared. However, according to the Fargo Forum, the city of Fergus Falls was given $7.9 million for preservation efforts or demolition. Where did all this go? Also, where do your figuers of $8-12 million come from? Is that for asbestos removal from ALL the buildings? I believe the only one that needs to be physically repurposed is the main facillity with the tower. The rest should be kept, but without occupants. But, that is just what I think. Alas, I don’t believe it should cost much, if any, more than the $7.9 million the city was already given…
Brendan and Jean. Not to put too fine a point on it, but one of the fears potential developers have is that they are dealing with an EPA which is increasingly severe and harsh in their evaluation and assessments of buildings and projects which are “contaminated” with asbestos,or have plumbing, electrical, sewage, heating and ventilation systems which an anonymous EPA bureaucrat or department may find unsatisfactory. And then take harsh actions to punish the developers in ways which serve as “examples” to any who are even questioning the supremaacy of the EPA. People have been tied up in court for years, at huge expense, under threat of imprisonment and forfeiture of their properties, by capricious actions of the EPA and their endless lines of lawyers.
Much as I admire the friends of Kirkbride for their efforts to preserve the facility and grounds, there is a certain level of naivete among many of the members that if they just want something badly enough and if they just pressure the council enough, they are entitled to get what they want. Like it or not, to get what you want in this endeavor will require a willing and well financed developer,plus the blessings of several levels of state and federal agencies, all of which will want their pound of flesh, authority and control over the activities, and extortion of fees, taxes, and added cost of development to satisfy the bureaucrats’ ever changing addiction to politically correct and “green” agendas.
In summary, if the desired result were so easy to achieve, the council would have completed the task long before now. The council are limited by city statutes, state laws and regulations, federal dictates, and the wisdom of private sector developers who are not willing to throw away money in a sustained economic downturn overseen by a national government hostile to private business.
Well there you have it…..if the Kirkbride is not saved from the wreckers ball it will be the fault of President Obama (the anti-business President).
Under this so-called anti business President corporate profits hit $1.37 trillion in the first quarter—an all-time high. Businesses are sitting on about $2 trillion in cash reserves. Business spending jumped 20 percent last quarter, and is up by 13 percent against 2009.
But then again, facts have never been known to slow Jerome in the spreading of his anti-Obama hatred. It won’t be long until Jerome will come here to report how one night he personally saw President Obama, pick axe in hand, hacking away at the bricks in the main Kirkbride Tower, while Nancy Pelosi held the flashlight.