BY R. WAYNE HARDIE
Los Alamos

Some of you may recall that almost four years ago the Los Alamos County County Council entered into a preliminary agreement with an out-of-state investor to purchase the CB Fox and Reel Deal Theater buildings.  Not knowing what the County would do with those buildings the Council hired a consultant to come up with options.  Some of them were laughable, such as converting the CB Fox building to a movie theater (you read that right), even though Reel Deal Theater was already a fairly new theater (the CB Fox building was a theater until 1955, when it was converted to a department store).  Thankfully, because of some legal issues, this purchase didn’t go through.

However, now the Council is proposing to spend almost $10 million to purchase three properties on Diamond Drive across from the high school, maybe from another out-of-state investor.  According to the news release, “The proposed purchase, valued at $9.85 million, is intended to advance several Council-adopted strategic priorities to enhance economic vitality and quality of life…should the Council decide to proceed with the purchase, alternative uses of the properties will also be explored.”

How will the County owning this property “enhance economic vitality and quality of life?”  It will only enhance the economic vitality of the investor who purchased these properties.  And since “alternative uses of the properties will also be explored,” that probably means hiring another expensive consultant to figure out what do do with the property.

I wish this had come up before the last election because it would have helped me decide which Council candidates to vote for.