Editor:

To South Portland City Council –

When the Armory building was purchased in 2006 I wrote to the city
council and asked what you were doing. The city is not in the real
estate business and I said that we don’t need to spend  $675,000
on a building. I was told it is the gateway to South Portland and we
will rue the day if we don’t buy it. I wrote that you wanted the
building for a new city hall and the few that took the time to write
back assured me that you had no intention of making it a city hall.
Well here we are talking about making it a city hall. You are
apparently again trying to side step the public, at least one council
member stated that the public should be included.

Some councilors even ran for office stating they thought the building
should be sold and got votes because of their view and are now
supporting the new city hall. Must be fun to lie to the public like
that!

That is some gateway you have, a strip mall and 10 houses on a
two-house lot! I wonder who put that deal together and made money,
maybe the same person spearheading this project. If you want to leave a
legacy do it with your own money not the cities and the taxpayers’
hard-earned money.

Our schools are falling down around our kids, we cut programs and
services, but you OK three quarters of a million dollars for a building
without asking and now want to spend god knows how much on renovations.
How do you people sleep at night? Maybe that’s the problem, it doesn’t
seem to bother you at all!

Tom Fiorini

South Portland