Another Who's on First moment in our comedic local government saga...
It's come to my attention that, once again, our illustrious Mayor Jake Day is wordsmithing on the sly!
Some time back, Day touted he got a $1M Grant from Governor Hogan for his Downtown Revitalization Project. At that point, we were told it was for the first phase of the Main Street renovation, which was that one block that took nine months to complete due to contaminated soil snafu.
Funky Monkey Mathematics...
One of our trusty insiders revealed Day & Company only budgeted $150K for the contaminated soil removal when its real cost was in escalation of $850K. This leaves a $700K deficit that was spent on contaminated soil removal. Therefore, the remainder was covered by that $1M grant - leaving only $300K (if that) for spending in the other areas of Day's Wonderful, Magical Downtown Extravaganza.
Over the weekend, WBOC reported this same $1M grant was all going towards revitalizing the Downtown Plaza. Yes, the same grant because Day only got one (1) grant from Hogan!
Are you now expected to believe in spun gold about how that momma dollar and papa dollar somehow managed to procreate an additional million out of thin air or is our illustrious Mayor just really, really bad at math?
The real question...
Just how many times does Jake intend on re-spending money already spent? At this point, we don't know!
26 comments:
Jake needs to wise up or ring out. Either way, makes no difference!
If I were Bob Culver and the County Council, I'd take that whole grant to pay the back rent on Jake's office space. They've defaulted in their lease for over two decades so a million is only a shard of what they owe the county.
Millions...MILLIONS will be wasted during El stupid-o's term. It will take YEARS to recover - if that!
$700,000 is more than a snafu or oversight, TC. It's an outrage.
If you claim that all of these renovations are coming from a grant, tax payers don't start to ask questions about where the money is really coming from.
I don't have a dog in this fight because thankfully I live in the county. But the citizens of salisbury are getting what they deserve for continually electing these children to run the city. Most of salisbury is unsafe to walk at night, but more section 8 should surely solve that problem. Oh well, you get what you pay for.
Doubt it. Willpower missing there as well.Everybody angling for another election.
Hillis-Carnes or John Hynes Co. could have been hired to take boring samples well prior to the project's start and they would have been totally aware of the contaminated soil and its total volume before the first piece of temporary fencing was put up.
Has Jake Day had the soil tested in Phase II yet? I doubt he even knows it can be done...
Hind sight is always better than fore sight
920 when you have a Masters in Urban Planning, isn't it a given you test soils when pricing out a job? Don't they teach that in Urban Planning 101?
The sad part is, WBOC look like FOOLS!
These local stations keep hiring clueless, inexperienced reporters. They, (WBOC) have NO investigative reporters. HOWEVER, they do have people like Steve Hammond who has been on air for over THIRTY YEARS, yet no one seems to chime in to help assure what they report can in fact be TRUSTED.
Notice how NONE of the media sources talk about TRUST any more. Look, it's not their job, right? I mean, get a press release, it must be true?
So now what do you have in local television news, actors, fake laughing and lies. Yeah, Delmarva's news leader.
9:41, you're assuming you were told the truth about Day's education. Considering he's a consummate liar, did we get the truth about anything?
941
Great point.
Plus, there are 1000's of gas stations all across the Country who have dealt with environmental clean up and they don't always spend 1$M doing it. It makes me wonder WHO or WHAT company are they using to dispose of the problem soil? It shouldn't have taken 9 months and it shouldn't take that much money.
My opinion
ANON 9:41AM
The money is so high because contaminated soil can't be disposed of without precaution in a landfill. There's more involved in the removal and disposal of it. We don't want a modern-day Love Canal incident here in Salisbury!
Jake Day being an urban planner expert should have tested all the soils long before the construction project began; however, in his haste to look useful, he rammed his ill-begotten budget through without consulting with the local landfills about such inconveniences state above. A simple phone call to the County would've gone miles (and save dollars) had it been done before not after dirt started flying into the winds.
Oops incidents always cost more than thoughtful planning. It's Murphy's Law personified.
10:00, what makes you think other property owners don't pay millions? While you may be right in the sense that perhaps they didn't have a leak or it was only one tank, there were multiple gas stations on these corners with multiple tanks leaking for years. Try purchasing a piece of property with contaminated soil and or former gas tanks in it and then you can speak. Until then, you are shooting from the hip with just words.
Joe, they don't have money to hire investigative reporters anymore because they blow it on drone brigades they don't even use because they're too busy showing images on Google Maps! Their triple doppler is a triple disaster and they've spent a pretty penny with a husband and wife team who for some reason, decided to go to the last market on the Nielsen ratings chart when they were in one of the top 20. Something is wrong with Draper and his business model but he's got a monopoly. WMDT isn't faring much better as their owners are trying to keep costs down to do a quick sale somewhere in the future. You can't put lipstick on those pigs. It is what it is.
Joe and ANON 10:00AM
All underground gas tanks have leaks. It's a given. Steel, iron, fiberglass - makes no difference. The problem is the brains behind this ill-fated, under budgeted project also had leaks which let all the common sense out of the project from the beginning onward.
I don't get the chain of events with the contaminated soil on Main Street.
Knowing that there were gas stations there for decades let them know that there was contamination. How much contamination shouldn't have been difficult to figure out using test wells, which is the first step to any petroleum and chemical soil remediation. The city is no stranger to test wells.
So, either they did test wells or they didn't. If they didn't, and they were doing a guesstimate based on who knows what, they were stupid . If they did, and did it right, the results would have told them how much the cost would be and to budget it with the right amount of available money.
So, which was it?
Thornton, I was awaiting a response from 10:00 because I knew they'd challenge me but let me beat them to the punch. I do own a property with 3 former gas tanks that leaked. Each tank was professionally removed and the exact proper channels were taken to remedy the soil according to Maryland state laws. I can also tell you that I recently put in a new well on that property where the state required me to install a very expensive double wall 8 inch well that went down much deeper then anything I've ever had to deal with in the past. However, it has all been done right, all to code and is perfectly safe.
What I'm trying to say to everyone is, I do have FIRST HAND experience on this matter as well as many other business matters. Jake Day has NO experience and no wisdom. Maybe one day the voters of Salisbury will wake the hell up and realize, the Good Ol' Boys are the very people who PLACE whatever Mayor they want in office. NO ONE can win and election in Salisbury unless you are willing to be the rubber stamp for that very influential group. DO YOU GET IT NOW SALISBURY?
Joe, you know Day is a poodle cupcake. The boy's never been really responsible his whole owned life. You're expecting him to be something he's never going to be. The real issue is the stupid Salisbury voters who thought this pencil geek was going to do a man's job when he's not even out of short pants yet! He ran unopposed that says it all right there in a hand grenade.
People like Day live their whole lives in hypotheticals not real life experience. They tread on that hypothetical knowledge and think it's king, much like many in academia.
1048 is correct about the matter. And yes, there are plenty of gas stations who have had to clean up leaks and usually they are done so with less time and money than the City is spending on this project. I believe Joe just confirmed as much in his follow up comment.
I am aware that when properties are SOLD which have had underground storage tanks, the testing is done and the remediation is done prior to or just after the sale is completed. Did the City take on financial responsibility for others' gas tank liability? It certainly sounds like it. That was a mistake made how many years ago? Why weren't the original land owners, the gas station owners, required to clean up their mess?
I'm still scratching my head on how the city gotvsway with building the section 8 housing on Fitzwater street. That property in NO WAY shape or form should have been allowed for development. It was a fertilizer company for years and completely toxic. There ARE those if us unfortunate enough to still be in thus area that remember ALL the old businesses that destroyed properties in Salisbury/wicomico county. Why do you you have all that waterfront acreage off pemberton drive just sitting there desolate. Good old croppers creosote company, tilghman ferlizer where Jake's section 8 artists are, you can go ahead and paddle board in that river if you kike, me I'll stuck to the cement pond
100
The original gas station owners were probably members of the "good ole' boys club" and the City probably took their property without complaint. Remember the Daily Times property? Same thing happened there. The City took the property and all of the liability for the environmental problems. This is what corrupt government does, it works for the "well connected" people on the local level just as it does on the federal level.
Not to worry -- in a year or so, Day will return full-time to his do-nothing job at Perdue, thanks to daddy Day.
I personally am looking forward to his getting his A** handed to him when he announces how he created so many jobs, growth, and crime reduction in an attempt to become a state Representative, then back to DADDY'S DAYCARE
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