POLICE STATION MOVES

Though getting signatures for an initiative vote requires a lot of work, the total announced Tuesday to force a vote on where the new Bangor police station would be built wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was that the city hasn’t done more to keep this issue off the November ballot.

Bangor residents have wanted a fuller explanation from city officials since the officials ended their multi-year project of putting a new police station downtown and chose a site on the edge of the city. What were the safety implications of this? What about the idea of community policing? What about downtown development? These were natural questions, but rather than provide sufficient explanations, the City Council approved the more distant location and that was that.

But of course it wasn’t. The petitions to change the council’s vote and put the station back downtown, specifically at 240 Main St., reportedly has gotten about 2,300 signatures – an official tally is yet to be verified – likely because the public assumes a station belongs downtown. It is common for police stations to be there, after all, and the city spent a lot of time looking for and choosing a downtown site before rejecting it. For these reasons, the initiative question would stand a strong chance of passing in November.

Before then, however, the city will hold a public hearing, scheduled for Aug. 23, on the referendum question, when councilors will prepare either to send the question to a vote or pass it themselves and agree to use the 240 Main St. site. Considering that this multi-million-dollar project will be part of Bangor for the next 40 or 50 years, the next couple of weeks also would be a good time for the council to do what it should have done months ago: Inform the public about the thinking that went into its decision and present the benefits and drawbacks of various locations, not just from a building perspective but in terms of city development and public safety.

It isn’t too late for councilors to meet with the petitioners and agree, for instance, to find another downtown site if 240 Main St. is not the best choice. Though the question may still have to appear on the ballot, under the right circumstances the petitioners could be persuaded not to support it. But a lot of cooperation would have to occur in the next couple of weeks for this to happen, cooperation and explaining.