Hey, what’s another$570,000between friends??
These people are insane.
I warned you! I warned you over and over and over. I laughed when the Hostess House “minor repairs” were first talked about….
That was exactly three years ago. Just some “minor repairs” and “minor decorations”. Yeah, sure. I called bullshit. I reminded you of the Old City Hall debacle and the $1.6 million spent on that vanity project (soon to be $1.85 million) – a pet project of Misti Talbert’s.
THEN it jumped up to “about $200,000”, according to City Manager Finley deGraffenreid in the Lampasas Dispatch in March 2021 – a mere 18 months ago:
Council picks architecture firm for Hostess House upgrades
THEN it ballooned to $1,308,670 – which is a sick joke all by itself. Morons like Cathy Kuehne said they should keep the historical look “even if it costs more”. Why not? It’s not her money! It’s just play money, apparently!
But I knew from years of watching these clowns that it wouldn’t stop at $1.3 million. No way. As of today, the costs have exploded once again…as they ALWAYS DO. That’s what happens when chimpanzees get ahold of somebody else’s checkbook.
The NEW estimate is $1,879,483.55 [see page 67]
Almost TWO MILLION DOLLARS for an “event venue” that will bring in just $10,000 per year, by the City’s own admission. So it’ll only take about TWO CENTURIES to get your money back.
Why the massive increase? Well, inflation of course! Yes, we all know inflation is running at about 44% per year.
So the consulting and engineering firms – who were paid HUGE amounts of money [$130,570 to Reliance Architecture in Oct of 2021] to plan all this – are just NOW realizing “oh wait! We need a fire alarm system! We need a sprinkler system! Oh, and a grease trap and exit stairs!”
Bullshit. They are either monumentally incompetent or this is some kind of kickback scam. There is no way they are that stupid.
[I seem to remember the EXACT SAME THING happening with the Old City Hall remodel back in March 2015 – except THAT time it was JNW Architects that was getting big checks to screw the pooch. Hmmm…wonder why Finley didn’t go with JNW again THIS time?]
Oh, and also “scope creep” – which is a fancy way of saying “we just keep adding shit and agreeing to more because – once again – it isn’t OUR money“. – ALSO known as “change orders”, which is how these contractors fleece their customers. Oldest trick in the book.
Christ, TJ Monroe is making Misti Talbert and her Old City Hall debacle look like a penny-pinching Jew with this outlandish waste of money.
This is EXACTLY like the Old City Hall debacle a few years ago. A bunch of children acting like it’s Christmas and Santa will give them everything they want. A $59,000.00 canopy? Yeah, why not. A pool changing room for $49,000? Hell yeah – that is obviously a necessity we can’t do without. Some random vague bullshit like “expanded renovation” and “technology” for an additional quarter of a MILLION bucks? Yes please!
Any City council member who votes to approve this shit should be voted out of office when they are up for election next time. This is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe they are even bringing this up publicly for discussion. I’d be ashamed to bungle things up this badly and ask for a 44% increase in the money wasted on this idiotic project.