On Saturday, March 1, 2003 the Alliance Police Department moved into their new facility on E. Market Street called Freedom Center. Maybe 'Freedom Center' sounds like a misnomer, since some people will end up locked up in the holding cells on the bottom floor. That's a far cry from freedom. Maybe we should have a door prize for the first tenant to be incarcerated in the "freedom" building.

After many years of planning, planning and more planning, the building is finished. The Police Department has moved out of the dungeon-like quarters they inhabited for many, many years in the basement of City Hall at 470 E. Market Street. There are probably things they will miss about the old building, but probably not too many. There are also probably a few glitches in the new building, which will take awhile to iron out. As with any new building, you have to live in it for a bit before you find out where all the bugs are before they get fixed.

The new building was paid for with money that came from the sale of the Alliance Community Hospital property. The city owned the ground under the hospital and sold it to them so they could expand their health care facilities. No matter how you look at it, the money received is public money and was used for a public purpose.

The final cost of construction for the Freedom Center is approximately $4.35 million dollars. The project has come in slightly under budget, which is highly unusual in this day and age. The reason it came in under budget? We watched every penny, haggled with contractors, made tough decisions about what we could live with and what we absolutely could not live without. Not everyone was happy with some of those decisions, but when it comes to money, you do the best you can with what you have.

Whatever funds are left in the Freedom Center account, combined with other capital improvement funds set-aside, will be used for the partial renovation of the old City Hall building. That work will be bid to contractors in March and start in April. It will take about six months to complete. Judge Lavery and Clerk of Courts Kevin Ward will be highly inconvenienced during this work. The public will also experience minor inconvenience with offices being relocated. At times court will be held in the small courtroom, other times it will be held in the Firehouse Theater. Other times you may not be able to figure out where anything is.

We ask the public to bear with us during these changes. In the end, the finished product will be a great benefit to everyone. Inconvenience is sometimes the price you pay for progress. Isn't that what they tell us about all the orange barrels on the highways? Just think of this as another orange barrel on the highway of life.

If you want to take a look at what you paid for, come to the Open House and Ribbon Cutting ceremony of the new Freedom Center on Sunday, March 9, 2003 at 2:00 p.m. We aren't serving cookies and milk but you will get a guided tour of the building. You can even look at the holding cells in the basement. There's no door prize either. Unless you're planning to be the first one incarcerated.

As usual, if you have questions, call the Mayor's office at 330-821-3110.