The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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July 5, 2010

Our View: Questions pile up over empty facility

The Free Press

MANKATO — The mismanaged construction of a new $8.8 million facility to hold aging convicted sex offenders in St. Peter is the kind of thing that makes taxpayers want to scream.

As detailed in a story by Mark Fischenich in Saturday’s Free Press, the new building, on the grounds of the Regional Treatment Center, is still unoccupied a year after being built because of numerous fire and health code violations.

While the facility is to be run by the Department of Human Services, it was constructed under the purview of the Department of Administration.

Neither agency has been forthcoming with timely explanations of how the mess occurred and failed to inform local lawmakers about the problems.

Some of the code violations are relatively minor and have already been fixed. But others are major — including the hallway in the north wing of the building being too narrow to meet fire codes.

When pushed by The Free Press and State Rep. Terry Morrow, DFL-St. Peter, state officials would only say they are assessing what needs to be done and who will pay for it. Morrow has pledged to make department officials accountable to legislative committees for the foul-ups.

Residents are right to be puzzled over how a major project could be completed before serious code violations were discovered. Any person having a house or commercial building built knows that inspections and detail to codes are an ongoing and important part of any construction project.

State officials need to be more transparent and up-front with area residents, state taxpayers and lawmakers about what’s going to be done, who’s going to pay for it and why it happened.

Bureaucratic delays and obfuscation is only going to make citizens more skeptical and untrusting of state government.

 

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