Dunedin commissioners made the correct decision last week when they put on hold for now a plan to build a new city government center.
The city has a number of expensive projects under way, including a new $2.8-million recreation center to replace the old Stirling Center on Laura Lane and a new $9.5-million community center at Highlander Park. Also on the drawing board was a one-stop government center that could cost close to $10-million.
The city already had purchased the land for the government center: more than 4 acres near the intersection of Main Street and Skinner Boulevard that came with a price tag of $2.1-million. City officials looked forward to the day when all city offices, now scattered among several buildings, could be consolidated in one modern structure that would include better, more practical facilities for conducting and televising City Commission meetings.
However, commissioners realized while discussing the budget at a recent meeting that their pennies might not stretch far enough to cover all those projects, especially if county voters don't agree to extend the Penny for Pinellas sales tax.
Faced with the need to trim something, they chose to put the new government center on the back burner.
It would be convenient for Dunedin residents to handle all of their city business in one stop. Now they may have to visit City Hall on Main Street for some business, and the Municipal Services Building on Milwaukee Avenue or the Technical Services Building on Louden Avenue for other business. Sometimes residents go to one location, park and go inside, only to learn they are in the wrong place. It's a hassle.
But that's all it is - a hassle. And most residents don't regularly visit city offices. They pay their bills by mail, use the telephone to get questions answered, and watch City Commission meetings on TV.
A better immediate use of the city's limited financial resources is to replace the dilapidated Stirling Center and community center. Those facilities had long exceeded their reasonable life spans even before the city finally decided to replace them. The public has already provided advice on the plans for those new facilities and seen copies of the plans. There would have been widespread disappointment if either project was halted.
