In response to the Jan. 23 guest column “Events center combines community’s past, future”: Nowhere in the Everett City Council minutes of last year will you find (regarding the arena project) records of councilmen Bob Overstreet or Dale Pope being “concerned” about our history.
I find it absurd that Overstreet and Pope are now trying to placate the historians. During the Dec. 12 council meeting, Pope didn’t hesitate to second the amendment to purchase the Scottish Rite and bulldoze it! Without any public comment! Is this the same Dale Pope who stated that incorporating the facades of the historic buildings in the arena’s design was too expensive? Our city leaders weren’t willing to spend 2.8 percent more for history.
They stated in their article, “Imagine the first time that Garth Brooks, Neil Diamond or Natalie Cole performs in Everett,” yet the city administrator, Lanie McMullen, whose background is supposed to be in entertainment, stated during a council meeting that the arena wouldn’t be able to attract big name entertainers such as Neil Diamond!
On June 27, 2001, over a month prior to the council publicly selecting the Hewitt site, Perteet Engineering stated that the Hewitt Streetscape project was to serve the “new arena.” Citizens’ input was still being accepted as to site selection, yet the city had already committed to Hewitt! I wonder whether we’d hear paper shredders buzzing if this information was subpoenaed.
Was this whole charade planned – they present us with an ugly facility knowing that the people would demand something better? So that future revenue shortfalls would be attributed to the extra “re-design” costs?
As for a “museum”, there hadn’t been any public mention by the council until Dec. 12! Is this museum accessible to the public? For free?
I challenge the council to hold all of their meetings in the new arena until the arena is ultimately demolished. This will serve as a constant reminder to our future leaders what impacts their decisions have upon the community.
Everett
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