Hey! Everybody excited about Bobby, Davey and Ray Ray’s new hotel about to go up in town? Well, don’t be. It turns out that the new 20-story hotel will not have any of the facilities that most people associate with a hotel. That’s because it isn’t. This building is not a whit more than the world’s largest vertical motel.
Like everything our local political party spouts, spins and shovels, nothing is as it seems. People have been coming up to me asking why I am against a brand new hotel in town. I’m not. I am, however, completely against being lied to, misled and told that it’s raining when it’s not, all while having to pay for it. Here is what this “hotel” will not have:
1. There will be no hotel-owned food service or kitchen facilities. Just like a motel.
2. There will be no indoor pool. Just like a motel.
3. There will be no facilities for weddings. Just like a motel.
4. There will be no large meeting rooms. Just like a motel.
5. There will be no banquet facilities. Just like a motel.
6. There will be no facilities for alcohol. Just like a motel.
7. There will be no concierge service. Just like a motel.
8. There will be no multi-room suites. Just like a motel.
It appears to me that the “hotel” we are buying with our hard-earned tax dollars will have fewer amenities than a Super 8 in Pavement Narrows, Neb.
Here, however, is what our new motel definitely will have:
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$4.2 million of our land gifted to the developer for free (If you apply the purchase price of their land to ours, that number would be closer to $16 million).
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$9.8 million of our money for their parking garage.
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$1 million of our money to purchase a small portion of their land.
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$500,000 of our money to operate the motel.
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Untold millions of dollars in construction-variance gifts.
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Ten $8-per-hour maid jobs and four $9-per-hour front-desk jobs.
Finally, I cannot find any community in the world that has decided to wreck its historic heritage by building a 20-story hotel 150 feet away from its star attraction. It’s like building a high-rise hotel on Jefferson’s Virginia mountain top, just slightly to the right of Monticello. No people in their collective right mind would ever want to debase, degrade or diminish what a great mind gifted them.
But I can think of three people who are trying.
Paul Hamer
Oak Park
