Behind the Scenes Machinations to Close City Health Dept.

They say you can't fight city hall.   Sure you can.   You just can't win, unless they want you to.

Last year it was announced that the City of Lubbock Health Department would be shut down.  Before that announcement and since, the machinations to close it have not stopped.

This last week, an article appeared in the newspaper about the building, attacking it on the basis of age and efficiency and reporting that it is barely occupied.   About 12% occupied, the article said.

And Paul Beane added his two cents calling the building "old and ragged."   One wonders if he was thinking of himself.

Well, hell, why is the building onl;y 12% occupied, assuming that to be correct?

Simple.   Before the announcement, before the city council had a chance to vote, already the city manager was moving departments out of the building.   That move-out has not stopped.  

First it was codes and all their files.   Then it was various sub-units of health, then vital statistics.  This year vector control has been moved out, even though they did not occupy much of the building itself but the outbuilding where chemicals were stored.   Even the big tractor that had been in a fenced off area for years has been moved.

To put it simply, the city manager (with allies on the council) have been moving everything they can out of the health department building and environs in order to circumvent public opposition to health department closure!

One warm Sunday several weeks ago I was cycling by the health department building.  As I passed the mass of gray painted natural gas pipes for the building, I heard deep hissing.   That was caused by the flow of natural gas into the building.     Why, one may ask, is a building on an 80 degree Sunday afternoon consuming natural gas?  A lot of natural gas?  

Obvously, someone did not turn the thermostat down when employees left on Friday.   My opinion is that it was not an oversight but a direct order by the city manager's office intended to maximize utility usage in order to justify a decision to abandon the building.  I don't care how old the building is, it is not that inefficient.

And let us look at where those city departments evacuated from the health department building are now located.   Some are shoehorned into the old building on 10th Street that had housed the SBA and then First State Bank offices that was acquired by the city last year as part of the plan to close the health department.   That building is itself about 50 years old and has inadequate parking -- each day 20-30 vehicles overflow into a lot that does not belong to the city, which will not continue for long.

The string pullers at city hall always find a way to have their own way.  

It's like capturing a fortress.   You may be unable to openly storm the walls, but you can tunnel under like so many moles and eventually the walls will fall, undermined from below.