Color me shocked.
The same clown horns that bungled the skatepark, leading to massive delays and cost increases (SPA Skateparks) have now ALREADY broken their latest promise to begin construction in 90 days.
From the 6/17/22 Dispatch article:
“During the regular session, the council voted to proceed with the design and construction of the park, with a cost not to exceed $400,000 and timeline of 90 days for the start of construction.
“‘If it doesn’t happen within 90 days, we should reconsider,’ Councilman Zachary Morris said in his motion”
So back on June 13th, SPA Skateparks agreed to begin construction within 90 days. But guess what? Assistant City Manager Ryan Ward stood up there before City council on Monday night (7/25) and basically said “Ummm…that’s not going to happen – SPA was awarded another contract and will be starting that one first, so we go to the back of the line”
Again, I am shocked! So will council “reconsider”? Of course not. They will bend over and take it, because every council bluff with a contractor is an empty bluff. Always. They know this.
I’ll admit, it WAS fun watching Ward try to dance around and not admit outright that SPA Skateparks just spit in his eye (go to 2:30 mark) and told him to get lost until next year. Good thing we pay him $110,000 per year to run things and take charge and push back on this screw job and maybe demand a price concession for breaking the agreement.
Oh wait. He did none of those things. He bent over and said “OK”.
Even Cathy “Porkchop” Kuehne complained a little bit about it (go to 4:30 mark):
“So they’re waiting to do us….until the beginning of the year…because they got a different bid? A different package? But they were here and they’re the ones that agreed that it wouldn’t be a problem to do the 90 days…I don’t think we should be blown off because they got a different bid.”
Highly-paid ACM Ward: “I’m not sure exactly what happened on their end other than they were awarded another contract and they started that one”
[Derp derp derp I don’t know what happened! Can I have a raise?]
Yes Porkchop, that is EXACTLY what he said. What are you going to do about it?
Nothing.
In the end, they do what they always do: bend over and take it. They did that with the City Hall elevator. They did it with Azbell Electronics and the A/V system. They do it all the time – because it’s not THEIR money. It’s yours.
I guess the good news is that since it’s going to be another 6 months, the price will go DOWN since diesel went down 10%, right? I mean, Chris Harrison just told us last month that the huge increase in cost was because “diesel”, didn’t he? Doesn’t it work the other way too?
Just kidding. We know ACM Ward isn’t smart enough to get a concession like that. The high price will be locked in but they’ll start building whenever the hell they feel like it, right? Yep – that’s about it.