Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Thursday, September 20, 2012

A Letter To The Editor 9-29-12

Dear County Council members, I see that a $12.5 million bond is being obtained for the new Bennett school. The question I am asking is when the county council is going to do something about the out of control construction costs of these school projects. We have one Taj Mahal Bennett school and we do not need another one. The BOE have people on their staff that has experience in school construction and costing to develop a functional school that does not have all the bells and whistles that the BOE thinks they need. Are these people being told by the higher levels to not design a cost efficient design or just let the architectural firm do what they want and we will sell this to everyone as what we need. The BOE has more major school projects in the long term schedule and if they are not put to task about cost control, we (the taxpayer) will be looking at Taj Mahal III & IV. It is amazing how everyone seems to fall for the smoke and mirror show that the BOE puts up every time they WANT SOMETHING. I want my tax dollar spend in a cost effective manner. The BOE will come into council meeting or public forums and say “this is for the children”. No, this is for the BOE ego, so they can say “look what we have given you for the children”. A Taj Mahal building will not teach students. A functional school building with proper learning technology inside the building being used by qualified, experienced teacher will produce students who will go out and become an asset to the community. The BOE is currently hiring inexperienced new teachers fresh out of college because they are cheaper than experienced teachers. The money saved is going to new non-teaching positions at the central office. If you looked at the staffing level at the central office, you would wonder how they all fit in the building. I wonder how many positions could be cut out if the BOE would do what every business has had to do with cut backs and personal being able to do multi jobs. All the department in Wicomico County have had cutbacks and staff reduction, so why not the BOE? We know that the BOE submits a budget to the council. Their budget would take a CPA to figure out what each line item is for. The BOE has become an expert in hiding money in line items that will never be used. A teacher can go thru the budget and find that 10% of the line items are bogus. I have had principals tell me the BOE knows exactly where they are hiding money in the budget. All this raises questions about the BOE and the way they do business and how true is the information being released to the public. As far the comment made about this project putting local construction workers to work. There are NO general contactors on the eastern shore who can handle a major school project. The general contractor who will get this project will be from the western shore (Whiting Turner). The general contractor will use his own hand picked subcontractors on a majority of the work and a few local subcontractor may get a small percentage of the work. Most local subcontractors WILL NOT bid this work because of the wage scale rates and paperwork. A wage scale rate job will make the local subcontractor have to borrow money for startup to pay salaries until he receives this first draw of money from billings. The general contractor (Whiting Turner will most likely get this project) will make the local subcontractor jump thru hoops with paperwork to get his money. So, comments about putting construction workers to work made by the BOE can be very misleading. Times are tough and they will not get better for a few years. The taxpayers are tired of our money not being spent in a proper manner for school construction projects. We expect a response from the BOE, but they can save their comments and quotes and let their actions speak. We are expecting the County Council to also let their actions speak. Concerned Taxpayer William M Davenport

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Look at The Salisbury School as an example of how to do it right. They constructed a functional building without all the bells and whistles but it still turns out great graduates. Isn't it funny how much money one can do without when the money has to come from one's own pocket instead of from the taxpayers.

Obama Motors said...

Couldn't agree more. Well said, Mr. Davenport.

Anonymous said...

Exactly correct on all points! Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Wait till you see what the BOE is spending on a feasibility study for a new Salisbury Middle School.

Anonymous said...

Joe:

Thank the RINOs on the Wicomico County Council -- Bartkovich, Prettyman and Holloway -- for this absurdity.

Anonymous said...

A few AC units from Wal Mart will take care of Bennett Middle.

Anonymous said...

i will admit, i did one of the early feasibility studies on Bennett Middle, it is in TERRIBLE shape, but thats because the BOARD wanted it that way. yes there is asbestos tile floors (no that particular part is not dangerous until they are broken and removed) and yes it is old and without A/C, but they didnt maintain it at ALL! now they want all but GOLD PLATED schools. They spec EXPENSIVE lights, all these intricate designs from these BALTIMORE ARCHITECTS. poster is correct - Whiting Turner will get it, they will screw it up, there will be a TON of change orders and in the end the project will be MILLIONS over budget. but you NEVER hear of the change orders that are way over budget. cant we the LAND TAX PAYER see what it costs us? yeah thats right, us LAND OWNERS pay the bill

Anonymous said...

You are so right about no local sub's
We have tried to bid with these guys and if you are not a Minority contractor, Or they want you to bond on evan a small project or one of their good old boy's of W&T
forget it you dont stand a chance.

Anonymous said...

As a result of the policies and requiremnts driven by our wonderful State of Maryland this project will cost 12% to 15% more for the exact work and materials than what it would if competitive bidding were allowed. Look at what Virginia ia able to achieve. The same results with substatnially less money spent. The local tax dollars for construction go once again across the bay and beyond!

Anonymous said...

What part of Bennett High to you consider Taj Mahal?

Anonymous said...

Joe, I work for a large nation wide company, for over a year I have made several attemps to sell WCBOE my products with guaranteed lowest pricing, I have sent Email after Email, Voice mail after voice mail to several diffrent departments within, Joe I have offered them everything from free samples to a presentation with lunch provided, The WCBOE did not reply. So it seems to me that they are not concerned about saving money so forgive me for not being shocked after reading your post. Its my understanding that Wicomico County students now have to pay to play sports, I wonder why.