Business queries

To the editor:

The discussion about Deciphera will continue way into 2008, but the question I have, as do others, is: Did the Chamber of Commerce and this DCDI (still unidentified as to how it is not for profit and who the players are) offer the spec building to anyone in the United States for a half-million dollars less than valuation with a 100 percent rebate on property taxes?

I find it hard to believe that not one manufacturing company would jump at the chance for a building under those terms. Maybe Lawrence is truly running off business. It appears that way.

It seems to me that the Chamber of Commerce is extremely remiss in carrying out their duties to attract commerce. This Deciphera is operating now from a building and paying rent. Why didn’t that landlord buy the spec building and then work a deal to sell it to Deciphera if the company grew? Too many unanswered questions.

In 2008, the city commissioners need to get to work; quit delaying decisions at meetings. When they have issues before them, they need to vote, yes or no. Quit this nonsense of sending issues back and forth to planning, neighborhood groups or study sessions. Move forward. And will those involved in DCDI and Deciphera please step forward and tell us what your real motives are? Tell us who is profiting from these ventures. Certainly not the taxpayers of Douglas County and the city of Lawrence.

David Holroyd,

Lawrence