Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay

A discussion item on this week's Kissimmee City Commission agenda merits, well, discussion. Item 8A discusses a proposal by the Parks & Recreation department to purchase Reed's Boat House and convert it into a parks maintenance facility.

There are some interesting positives here. It removes the current parks maintenance facility, a metal building adjoining the old Hansel plant, which would probably have to go during any redevelopment plan for the plant. And it has the potential to save money, with the implication that purchasing and remodeling Reed's and demolishing the old facility could come in under the budgeted amount for a new maintenance facility.

At the same time, we have to question the desire to take another taxpaying property off of the tax rolls. And certainly the unique location will make it difficult for the boat owners who currently store their watercraft there to find similar storage near Lake Toho.

Does a parks maintenance facility need to be on lakefront frontage? And couldn't space be found sharing space with the remaining KUA operations along the lakefront?

Finally, we drove past Reed's the other day and noted that the concrete block wall along the lakefront across the street has been recently removed. This, along with the potential acquisition of Reed's by the city leads us to speculate...is the concept of closing Lakeshore at the railroad crossing back on the table?