An important clarification of a claim misrepresented in the mayoral debate: When Cecil Yates was confronted with his support and involvement in the almost $40,000 lagoon fiasco, he retorted that Ginny was responsible for wasting $180,000 on a fire station study, mocking that the trucks would have had to back out on Shea. This is not only untrue, but another example of Yates’ predisposition to make disingenuous misrepresentations.
Facts: In 2009, after years of the fire chief demonstrating the need to relocate Fire Station 2 (Saguaro, south of Shea) due to inadequate response times and call volume imbalance between the stations, the council, as a whole, started moving ahead.
There was an obvious advantage to using already owned town property. With the chance for a grant to provide the station at no cost, the council decided on the town-owned Shea site, and spent the funds to get plans (not a “study”) completed. After not winning the grant, the council decided not to proceed.
Ginny Dickey didn’t agree, however, feeling the need for the relocation hadn’t changed and they now had the plans, land and enough funds. An effort for a different site emerged, involving a land swap and the original plans were scrapped. The resulting delay cost well over the funds spent on the plans but, importantly, the new site is a good one.
There was never any plan to back the trucks out on Shea. There was to be an asphalt apron designed for the trucks to pull forward into, then back into the bay after the call.
Bottom line, the fire station plans were done by the council in regular order. The lagoon plans were created in secret, involving Yates, without participation of the entire council.
