Tag: Old City Hall debacle

Is The Roof Already Failing At The $1.5 Million City Council Chambers?

I guess $1.5 million doesn’t go as far as it used to.

Recall, the City blew over $1.5 million “remodeling” the Old City Hall Building a few years ago.

First they sold the building for $75,000. Then they bought it back about a year later for $229,000. This was fairly typical for the idiots running things between 2013 and 2022.

City manager Finley DeGraffenreid explained away this colossal waste by telling us that a lot of improvements were made in that year. LOL.

OK.

Anyways, when they paid JNW Architects $18,500 (October 2016) for a “structural analysis” of the building, apparently the roof passed muster.

Unfortunately, the City then spent $45,194 to re-roof the building about two years later. So much for all those “improvements” the City paid $154,000 for, right Finley?

Well, the roof debacle might not be over yet.

From tomorrow’s City council packet (page 70):

“After noticing some plaster deterioration in the corners of the Calvert Building, staff reached out to Clark roofing to assess any possible penetrations or deficiencies in the roofing. The roof was installed in 2018 and is still under warranty….once the leak or leaks are fixed, staff will complete repairs to the interior.”

Oh. So will Clark pay for those repairs to the interior too? Or will Ryan Ward just go to the money tree and shake it a few times and let the taxpayers pay for yet ANOTHER costly mistake by a contractor?

Lest you think I’m kidding, recall that the Old City Hall elevator was such a disaster that the City had to pay $17,000 (out of their own pockets) for a 3-year maintenance contract because the elevator was breaking down so much.

I’m sure it’ll be different this time, though!

City Not Done Blowing Money On Old City Hall (aka Jack Calvert Building)

This entire blog exists solely due to City council wasting almost $100,000 on an A/V system for an opulent new council chambers back in July of 2018. The colossal waste of tax money fired a rage in me that is still burning here to this day, clearly.

That was just the tip of the iceberg as City council ended up blowing around $1.5 million to “renovate” Old City Hall and give themselves a fancy new council chambers. Initially, some members of council balked at an estimated cost around $700,000 (which was DOUBLE what they had budgeted at $350,000).

Of course, they ended up not only blowing the $700,000 but another $800,000 on top of it. The waste and incompetence was chronicled here in excruciating detail. Misti Talbert and Chuck “The Vampire” Williamson were instrumental in keeping the monstrosity alive.

You’d think they’d be done wasting money on it by now – seeing as how they had a big fancy dedication in December of 2019.

You’d be wrong.

Listed in the possible uses for a new $6,300,000 bond offering they will be discussing in three days time (possible cost to taxpayer of$9,143,000over 20 years – page 111) is this gem:

Upper pressure plane = where Deorald Finney built his 67 houses with subsidies from City council

ANOTHER quarter million to be spent on their vanity project. You know, for lighting and shrubs and stuff.

My god.

I guess the new official total for the Talbert ‘Wow factor’ Vanity project will be more like $1,750,000 before it is all said and done.

Seven Goldfish Move Into Their New $1,500,000.00 Fishbowl

Huzzah! The $1,500,000.00 Talbert/deGraffenreid Wow-Factor Vanity Project is supposedly finally done, according to today’s Dispatch!! Only a year late and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars over budget!

I’m not sure why they waited until four days AFTER the Oct 28th City council meeting to trumpet this thing in the newspaper. Why not do your big Dispatch puff piece BEFORE the meeting? That way the highly engaged and intelligent electorate can come and gaze upon the majesty of its many big-screen TVs and its $95,000 no-bid A/V system, right?

Maybe it’s just MOSTLY done and not ALL done. Kinda like the ‘shovel-ready’ corpse repository business park. That would also explain why the Dispatch article says that City officials have announced that “a formal open house and dedication ceremony is planned in December” instead of making the same announcement last week. Gives them another month to actually make it ALL done, right?

I think one of the funniest parts of the article is where Spinley deGraffenreid explains to us morons that selling the entire building to Joe Corcoran in 2013 for $75,000 [which is less than $7 per square foot!] and then BUYING BACK THE EXACT SAME BUILDING IN 2015 FOR $229,000 was ACTUALLY a stroke of genius. BAHAHAHAHA. I gotta hand it to Spinley – I have no idea how he keeps a straight face when he makes these outlandish claims.

The explanation for paying over TRIPLE what they sold it for two years earlier? Well, I guess old Joe made some ‘improvements’ to the place – like new windows and a NEW ROOF, according to the Dispatch article.

New roof??? Weird. Because, as I recall, despite the idiots at JNW Architects collecting a check for declaring the building structurally sound [May 2016] and “in good shape”, City council LATER approved almost FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS TO RE-ROOF back on September 20th, 2018!

Spinley also loves repeating his fairy tale that the renovation was ‘only’ $1.02 million, because that’s how much they handed over to ASJ Construction. He doesn’t count all the other stuff – like the $154,000 they wasted buying back the building…the $54,000 to JNW Architects to make a bunch of mistakes consult…the no-bid $95,000 AV system…the $60,000 fire suppression system..$12,780 for 100 stackable chairs to hold the throngs of City Council attendees…$8,055 for OTHER Council furnishings…$50,000 contingency….random furnishings….the $128,400 elevator…the $45,000 roof repair that was supposedly already done by Corcoran….. and a WHOLE BUNCH of other stuff.

Only in the mind of a government bozo do those costs not count. The REAL number is WELL OVER $1.5 million, my man.

Here is a summary of just a small bit of the stupidity – the roof:

November 2013: City council decides to sell the building to Joe Corcoran for $75,000 or less that $7 per square foot.

In 2015: City council The Seven Goldfish decide to buy the same building back for $229,000 – apparently forgetting (as goldfish are prone to doing) they just sold it for $75,000. They claim the $154,000 wasted is ok because Joe fixed some windows and put on a new roof. Joe triples his money in less than two years. Your tax dollars at work.

May 23, 2016: JNW Architects said the building “is in good condition”

October 2016: Finley hands JNW another $18,000 for “structural analysis and provide documentation” for the building.

September 2018: Finley comes begging to City council for $45,000 to re-roof the building. Council The Seven Goldfish, forgetting (as goldfish are prone to do) that the building was already deemed awesome and structurally sound, agree to fork over the $45,000 with no questions.

This would all be hilarious if it was happening to Chicago or Austin Copperas Cove…but no. Sadly these morons are running OUR city. How many more millions need to be wasted before people wake up?