Can't pave streets, can't clean up waste as don't have money.. Can spend money on Lazy River at Point Mallard and railroad Depot. This is one of the reason the city needs a city manager who should stop the waste.

What a waste of money. But of course, it's not theirs, is it?

This city has so little left historically that this project should be undertaken. The shame it that it will not be used to draw people to the city as a dinning facility or historic attraction but to house city business.

It will be another money hole that 99% of the people will never use, WAKE UP COUNCIL11111111111111 if you have to satisfy your spending habit do it on something that will benefit more of your citizens. But you'll never listen I forgot, when you got elected you became so much smarter that us the voters as far as to what we need or not. Just remember this is not your money, if it was you would spend it more wisely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

100,000 on what repairs

I have a friend was looking to find a commercial rental building on Central Parkway near Valley Budweiser. After driving down Central Parkway from Cedar Lake to Lenwood, he decided he'd just go to Cullman. He said the streets weren't that bad in Cullman? Imagine that.

if the estimate is 2.5 million it will cost the city $5 Million. Estimates have proven to be about half the actual cost by the time all the change orders, increase in cost, etc. comes into play.

City Manager, City Manager, waaahhh, waahhh, waaaahh all the home. A city manager IS NOT going to be a silver bullet fix to Decatur's inept politics. A city manager will cost the taxpayers another $100K+ in annual salary and still be at the mercy of the city council's bidding. While this may be a worthwhile project or even a waste of money, if undertaken, it will require diligent and constant project management to make sure there are no or very minimal cost overruns. This is something the City has never been able to handle very well (dog pound as an example). There should be no surprises in cost at the end of the job. Past problems could have lot to do with the firms the city are using. I call BS on the lead abatement. This is a high cost excuse because when you hear the words "Lead Paint", it creates a panic and an all out red alert environmental emergency. Yes, there probably is lead-based paint on the walls. So what! There are companies that make a living doing this type work everyday and a very reasonable cost. Anything that's over 20 years old has probably got lead paint on it, and if it came from China, even today, it has lead paint on it. It's all about project management and demanding and expecting to get what you paid for in the building contract. A far as there being so little left in Decatur historically, again BS. Decatur has the largest defined area of historic homes in Alabama and perhaps the Southeast.

so Hammond's justification is to spend $2.5 million now to save $65k annually? what?

Why not bulldoze it, asphalt it, then stripe it. Downtown parking.

I can save the City of Decatur 2.5 million dollars.....never mind trying to restore this eye sore, tear it down! There you go, put that money toward something meaningful.....the city schools, streets, housing for the elderly, something!!!

According to past news reports, the police department was going to move the traffic division, or the detective divison into part of the depot. Reading Mr. Hammonds remarks on this article, it sounds as if he is implying that the entire department will move there so they can move offices from the annex into the police department. So, whicjh is it? Here is a thought, spend the 2.5 million to build a new police department, tear down the depot, and move the offices from the city hall annex ( another rip off we are paying for) into the former police department. But that makes sense, Decatur is not know for making those kind of decisions..excuse me I was thinking out loud.

We must realize that we are in a financial crisis in this country. We must manage our money

wisely. There is no justification for spending 2 1/2 million dollars to restore the old railroad depot.

The taxpayers are already burdened past our limits because of uncontrolled government spending.

This is well worth any investment. You cannot put a price on our history.

Well Dave... how much have you contributed to this "worthy investment"?

Let Anders raise our utility rates to fund this.

The City should watch it's pennies. If the Police Department is looking for additional space, maybe they should take over the new Dog Pound and send the Dog Pound back to the previous location beside the tracks. This would give the Police Department more visibility in the SW Section. "Be Careful Out There!"

What's wrong with the place that the police dept. is in now?

It just keeps getting better!