Money should go to improving the quality of life for residents at the Rock County Health Care Center. The residents deserve better than what they have. The lack of quality surroundings and subjecting the residents to live in the manner in which they do is quite disturbing. Yet our city is asking us to vote on how to spend money? Our city manager keeps accepting pay raises? Aquatic center? A parking ramp? How about spending money on a fantastic health care and rehab center? Our family had to go outside of Janesville to get the excellent care and rehab our father deserved. Many years have gone by with the same discussion about what to do with the Rock County Health Care Center. It's time to start putting money in this facility or build a brand new one. It's time that Janesville recognizes that its own residents need help.

How about snowplowing when it snows? We sure didn't get our tax money worth of snow plowing!!

I"d rather see them spend the money on getting rid of the thugs.

Don't spend money you don't have. Borrowing money is fool-hardy.

Neither is a good idea right now. The economy is a mess and will not be getting better for a long time. We should be focused on upkeep on the things we have now. Borrowing money is not wise at this time.

Don't spend money you don't have in the first place. I'm not interested in my tax dollars being spent on special interests that only involve certain demographics.

Why aren't the affluent families in this city stepping up to spread around the wealth? Why isn't the City kissing some well-heeled ass to get their agenda acomplished?

How about simply *not*borrowing money? The economic picture is not good, and more debt and taxes is a foolish choice.

I am a Rockford resident and have three kids that go to magic waters almost everyday in the summer. I guess it is hard for me to understand how they are losing money. At almost $20.00 a pop and almost $100.00 for season passes, not to mention the price of food and drink. The place is PACKED everyday.
Dini 79...I obviously am uninformed and am not up to date on my figures. I hate to say it but the city of Rockford mismanages everything they touch, but I can appreciate your point.

Our city manager wants two more parking lots down town and then he and the dnr will demolish the parking ramp across the river. The gazette of course goes along with everything the city manager wants.

whatcomesaround, it does SEEM like a no-brainer, but here's what actually happened in two nearby cities with much greater populations to sustain those aquatic centers:

In Rockford,the private company that owned Magic Waters went into debt and the city had to take over the park. Guess what? Rockford inherited a bunch of fiscal liability. It's costing that city more to keep it going than the revenue it generates.

In Madison, the aquatic center was promised to start paying for itself almost out of the gate. That started with city ownership. And what happened? Big fiscal liability. In a richer per-capita county than ours.

Those are communities with big areas to draw upon (Rockford says its metro area has a 250,000 population). If places that close to Janesville didn't attract people from here, we are most certainly not going to attract people from THERE.

The economy has taken a big hit and we're finally starting to feel the repercussions in Rock County (note, among other things, real estate auctions popping up around the city). If I'm someone with fifty bucks to blow taking my family to a water park, I can sure spring for the gas to Rockford or Madison.

And yet, people don't.

If I'm not someone with that kind of cash -- and there are more of us in that class every month -- I'm not going even if it's across town.

So, in black and white, you are indeed mistaken. Sorry.

The downtown will never be the commercial center that it once was, that has moved out to the north side. As stated earlier the downtown is still pretty vibrant and continues to evolve. With the banks and also the courthouuse, the demand for office space is probably viable and a parking garage would probably help to create more of a demand. That would be infrastructure that a city should provide.

let the Dells developers come down and take the recreational risk and let the city continue to provide the components that will fill up Janesville building vacancies.

Yeah! We don't need our City trying to come up with an idea for a project just so they can 'borrow' (tax) the money from the citizens.

no borrowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tell me if I'm wrong but wouldn't an aquatic center generate economic growth to the city and provide jobs? Sounds like a no brainer.

"Who maintains the post office parking lot? "
Can't you tell?
NO ONE!

mrmeadec
I think they tore it down before it fell down.

Our roads and older buildings need top priority. Who maintains the post office parking lot? That is terrible! Let's get rid of all those postholes.

taking care of some of the empty buildings sitting around town like the hardees building on court street etc.

We need to begin funding items that make Janesville a destination.

No borrowing necessary, low taxes and decent services are what makes Janesville a jewel.

We should take care of the things we already have like our roads and parks. When we complain that they are not taking care of those things we hear "we don't have the money". We DON'T NEED a developer/spender in these harder times, we NEED a money manager/saver. This is OUR money for OUR city. Demand that they listen.

I think that the city of Janesville should look into a children's museum. something that can be used as a park during the winter and something than can be visited in the summer months with fun interactive exhibits. i bet if you made it cool enough it would make money back to keep it going.

Can any one tell me why they took down the old parking garage downtown in the first place?

I chose other for my vote. The reason is, if we have to borrow the money (as stated in the poll question) I don't think we need it. I think it's a problem borrowing money (in this entire contry)and living on credit. Some things are understandable, but for a new pool or parking ramp, not a good idea.

Downtown is "dead"?

Maybe Janesville's downtown doesn't look like it did 20 years ago (whose does?), but I see a fairly vibrant community there, where you can buy a reasonable lunch or cup of coffee, books, have your hair cut, buy your insurance, get a mortgage, do your banking, buy or sell an antique or two, have a massage, tip a beer with friends, rent an apartment ... that's just the commerce side of it.

And let's hope Janesville starts supporting its weekly farmers market in the summer. That is a jewel for this community: funds stay in the community, you know who grew your lettuce (and it's fresh TODAY), and what a lovely place to mingle with others and find handmade goods, not to mention the free music.

Besides that, we have a world-class library for a city this size, a vibrant senior center, a few nice green spaces for a picnic or for kids to play, and more than a few charitable and non-profit organizations located downtown.

I have a lot of beefs about this community -- mostly having to do with high-minded attitudes of a few of its residents -- but downtown? I see it in transition, with finer things coming down the pike.

This downtown is not dead. There are things it needs, and ways it needs to take care as it develops. We do need an overarching plan. I think most peoples' complaints concern the willy-nilliness of some businesses there.

The idea of attracting a large hotel with water park to, say, the old Menards location is one worth looking into. But NO FREE RIDES for business!

But it sure looks like the consensus here is that we need to live within our municipal means and care for what we have first and foremost.

And what we have, while always subject to improvement, is considerable.

u build they will come. Build the garage then leas /rent the spaces out @ a reasoanble cost this will pay for upkeep.ALso will help defray the costs asociated with building it. We need parking downtown.

Let's not just look for "things" to build or do so we can borrow money. Here's a novel idea....work with what you have..stay with in the budget of what you can afford... You can only go to the "well" so many times before the well is dry..(the well being the citizens of Janesville.)

The city should borrow nothing and take care of the things it has now. Forget the unnessary things other cities have. Get back to basics! Harder times are ahead of us than they currently are. Live within your means.

Forget the aquatic center and the parking ramp. Fix the roads. Mow the grass in the parks. Help offset the cost of the new sidewalk project for the members of this community that absolutely can't afford it..or better yet, help all of the residents that have to have sidewalks put in. Pay for 50% of it. Maybe if the city offered more of a fair deal than saying we want this and we want YOU to pay for it, there would be more support. Maybe that makes to much sense? I guess you're right. Build that aquatic center and parking ramp!

They don't NEED anything. The aquatic center is a joke. Just look at Madison and the pool they put in. It still isn't paying for itself let alone making any money. It's amazing how government can just spend and spend money they don't even have. Say they do borrow money to build a parking ramp. How is that parking ramp going to generate money to pay for the money that was borrowed to build that ramp?

Does anyone else think this question is rather odd? You borrow money for a clear need. You don't create needs to justify going into debt.

anything, as long as you can raise more taxes next year for the "anything else"

You are going to have to do major repairs on streets in Janesville not only the ones scdheduled for maint but many many more. you only give them a quick coat of asphalt and expect that will do the job, but it doesnt. City manager wants all the frill but lets the important things go. Also Talman house could use some help.

i cant live like that borrowing money i dont have or cant pay back without losing everything so why should the city. Fix what we have to have fixed and do it right. Not waste money on looks like the stupid library project-didnt gain alot of space for those millions.

I think I have to agree with Rocky, if there is no dire need for something or a strongly expressed desire by the majority of the community for something in particular, why think up something to borrow money for? I realize there is the old "build it and they will come" concept, but without a justifiable "IT", let's not borrow money in such tight times.

if we need a parking garage downtown then why in world did they demolished the old one?????? yes it would be nice to have a new aquatic center or the new fair grounds. but why cant we get a big company to come to janesville to hire a bunch of people. one that hire atleast 100 people. Also something around $14 an hour

WHY DO WE NEED DOWNTOWN PARKING??? THATS ABOUT A WASTE OF MONEY.

SW Janesville could sure use a motel. Why not "court" one that would bring in a water park. The airport is here, a golf-course and by-pass 11. My visitors have a 20 mi. round trip to a motel on Hwy. 26.
The Janesville Senior Center needs more parking space, and not one blocks away.

Teachers.

Rockport is more than adequate and even from the eastside is not very far to drive (and thanks to the great bike paths, it's a really easy bike ride). I'd also like to point out that most of the surrounding communities do not even know Rockport exists!

A downtown parking structure would be nice; however, that plus new commericial development downtown is similar to the chicken-and-the-egg problem.

The real problem for downtown is that land is cheap at the edge of town as well as the fact that traffic density is obviously high along the freeway and along routes US 14 and 26... ideal conditions for commercial development. Downtown was successful before I-90 existed precisely because highways A, G, 11, 26, US 14, and US 51 converged; this is no longer the case and hence the downtown is no longer vibrant. It is my opinion that the bulk of downtown should be turned into a residential area. You will never get that traffic back downtown and it's not worth trying to do so at this point with all of the development on the northeast side. It's a fact: bypasses destroy communities. The city would have to offer significant tax breaks to commercial development downtown while trying to reroute traffic back through that area; the net result (for the next 10-20 years at least) would be a loss of revenue for the city. I hate to say it because I love downtown but due to various city planning decisions over the last 25+ years, downtown is dead and it's not coming back.

Do we NEED an Aquatic Center or do we WANT it? Yes the spash pads in a COUPLE of the parks would be great...IF the city has the money for it WITHOUT borrowing.
Extras are just that EXTRA. encouraging a hotel to build here would be a much better idea for many reasons. We have WAY to many empty buildings & lots need to be reused. The soon to be old Menards for one. That would be PERFECT for such a hotel. Better for the commmunity & less money spent from the city.
The city NEEDS to focus on just that NEEDS.
MHO.

The bad economic news just keeps piling up. Borrowing should be reserved at this point for absolute immediate needs. What's coming is not going to be pretty ... already you see real estate auction signs up in this city. Between foreclosures (reducing the entire neighborhood's value and stressing the financial sector to its limits), job loss and inflation -- which I have keenly felt at the grocery store lately -- Janesville's economic future looks pretty gloomy. The bad stuff has hit the coasts, but it's headed our way. Let's see to it that our citizens' basic needs are met before we borrow for other projects.

None of the above. Don't spend money you don't have. No borrowing

Let's work on funding our schools ! I like swimming, but hey Rockport is good enough, we don't have to have a aquatics center. Encourage a private Hotel to put in a waterpark, we sure don't need a 5 million dollar facility that is used only 3 months a year and used by such a small percentage of the population.

If you want something for the youth in this city, try something that can be used all year long and offers a variety of activities.

I also think our roads need to have better maintance, especially after this years winter.

Continue to improve our city roadways and maintenance to our schools. Put more money into our social infrastructure to help our less-fortunate citizens. An "Aquatic Center" is just plain stupidity. The maintenance of a facility that would only operate 3-4 months out of a year would be mind-boggling!