Why The Hefner Property?

(editorial by the Outlook’s Dave Schmidt)

Recently the City of Celina bought two properties –

1- The Winklejohn Building on North Main Street next to City Hall

2- The Hefner Property just off of Touvelle Street on North Street

The Winklejohn Building makes sense to purchase since the Celina Police Department, Celina Fire Department and Auditor’s Office are in need of added space for the future. Several years ago the City Administration and City Council discussed building a new complex at a new site to meet those needs but nothing ever developed. Pretty much a typical small city deal that lead to nothing being done. One concern was spreading out the city facilities even more than they already were. If you know anything about Celina City government they own a building pretty much in every part of town. So purchasing the Winklejohn Building makes sense and will now allow for some “elbow” room to expand.

But now the reason for writing this editorial, there is always a reason. Why does the city need to own the Hefner property? The question should be “who” wanted the city to buy that property and why? This property has been on the back burner for many years now and has really turned into a good old-fashion Soap Opera. There were even lawyers, lawsuits and depositions taken over this issue. So besides the actual cost of the building you can also add those cost to the total. Do we know how much the city spent in these legal matters? Nope.

I guess the city plans on moving the electric department to that location from there beautiful spacious sight on West Market Street. Yeah the “old barn” needs to be replaced, probably should have happened after the big storm several years ago when the roof caved in. The Electric linecrew could definitely use a new place to work from, but not at the Hefner property. You will see from the pictures we have at the top of this page, the building’s at the Hefner property are not in any better shape than the current electric department site (plus the city needs to clean the weeds from the Hefner site, practice what you preach). If they plan on tearing the present buildings down, how much will it cost to build a new building? So why in the world would you build a new building away from the other city facilities?

Why did the city go thru all of this work and years to purchase the Hefner property? The only reason I know is because one Celina City council member pushed for it and finally got his way and now the city owns it. This council member should really get a real estate license, I think he also tried to sell the city several times a bank building to them as well, one he worked for. Luckily for everyone the bank still owns that one. Why did he want the city to purchase the Hefner property? You should ask him that question? I’ve not heard one good reason to this day why the city should have that property or how they would benefit from owning it. Most of those items were discussed in executive session away from the public. You should also ask every Celina council member and City Administration member why they wanted to purchase this site, we would ask them but they have never answered our requests in the past. Should they reply to this editorial we will print them, but don’t count on it.

Was the Hefner property an eyesore? If you have an eyesore near your home, you should probably run for Celina City Council. Because there are still plenty of those around Celina that the city could purchase and are closer to other city buildings and could help consolidate city operations. It is to late now, congratulations everyone you now own the Hefner property!