Tuesday night will be the last chance for public comment on the demolition of the old jail in south Provo. Please come and support ProVolt if you can.
The old jail is a 65,000 square foot building on 7.40 acres that the city has left abandoned for many years. The city claims that the building is worthless, but in my opinion that is a grand overstatement. I estimate the cost to renovate the building will be on the order of $600,000, and that the cost to re-build a similar building would be about $5 Million. Many grants exist to renovate or update facilities, but grants for new construction or purchase are virtually nonexistent. Only about 1/4 of the building is jail cells, and the rest is office space, a server room, equipment rooms, a commercial kitchen, etc. Damage to the building is mostly broken windows, graffiti, and broken drop ceiling tiles. Appraisals I received put the value of the vacant land at $1.3 Million, and the city has been trying to sell the property for $500,000 to a developer who would demolish it to build over a hundred town homes. If you want to see a walk-through of the building, it is available at: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR-TjP_4v1OBRgWz-kONUx7Z8pe6gmfwu The results of this council meeting may determine whether ProVolt continues here in Provo, as this has been the intended location since before ProVolt began. -John Fenley /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
