There was a public progress meeting on the remodel of the 9R building into a new city hall and police department May 20, which was announced days before in the Herald. I was unable to attend. So I waited patiently for a report of the meeting in the Herald. Five editions of the paper have been delivered since the meeting and no article on it. So I went to the Herald offices and asked if any reporter covered the meeting. After waiting four days for a call – no call. On May 29, I went back to the Herald offices and Shane Benjamin talked to me. He said the Herald did not send any reporter to the meeting.
This is a large project, bigger than anything the city has tackled. The first estimate for the remodel after the city bought the building from the fire department was $60 million. The next estimate climbed to $80 million, and the last estimate before this meeting was $100 million (before debt service on the bond), as quoted by the city manager in an article in the Herald months before the May 20 meeting. I don’t understand why the Herald did not send a reporter to this progress meeting about a project that will be the single most expensive outlay of money the city has ever undertaken.
I hope the Herald will do some digging and report back to us.
Gerald Raymond Weis
Durango
Editor's note: The Herald’s newsroom makes coverage decisions independently based on available resources and competing news priorities. While not every public meeting can be covered, the Civic Campus project remains an important community story. Today’s Herald includes a report on the latest public meeting and project developments.
