By Josh Resnek
Working inside Everett City Hall has its advantages for city employees who work inside the many offices there.
A four day workweek is a plus.
Vacations. Sick pay. Maternity leave. Pensions. Decent salaries that are guaranteed and on and on.
However when it is hot outside it is even hotter inside, making life about miserable as it can be.
Last week’s heat wave caused the Department of Public Works to place large, industrial size electric air fans on all three floors where city employees were trying to maintain concentration inside super heated offices in an environment that probably wouldn’t have passed the OSHA test for appropriate working conditions.
The big fans roared with the sound of rushing air on all three floors.
In some offices, employees worked without lights to enhance the belief that their spaces might be cooler in the shadows.
Not much worked to reduce the heat caused by the soaring temperatures outside.
The big fans were a psychological boost – but if you work at city hall or you were visiting, the bottom line is that the place needs a major overhaul to be air conditioned properly.
Maybe that time has come.
Maybe not.
It is likely that properly air conditioning the 1960’s building would require several millions of dollars to achieve.
This might not seem a proper thing do for those who believe the city squanders taxpayer’s dollars.
However, city hall should be properly outfitted with a new air condition system no matter the cost.
City employees and visitors to the city hall cannot be expected to function properly and to get their business done in conditions where much of the population at city hall is in a dreary, heat soaked sweat.
Also, whichever of the city’s public schools are not properly air conditioned should be brought up to a higher standard conducive with comfortable atmosphere for the city’s public school children.
The city’s millions and millions of dollar holdings of AARPA funds could be used to defeat the heat outside by making the insides of the city’s public buildings cooler during oppressive heat as the ought to be.