In case you missed yesterday's P-G article,
Changes said to save $16 million on high school renovation work, Josephine Posti told Kaitlynn Riely, in a phone interview, that groundbreaking should take place sometime in early December. The article was in my newspaper yesterday, but had not made the online edition until today. Some quotes from the article include:
"We feel with these cost reductions that we've made, not only is the building in no way denigrated, we're excited about how the new building is going to be changing the cultural landscape of the community," Ms. Posti said in a phone interview. "It still is just a really fantastic project that we're looking forward to getting started."
and
Ms. Posti said Wednesday that she thought the roughly $16 million in changes left the project "in really good shape."
and the best one
"The majority of the savings will not have any impact on the design," Ms. Posti said.
The project should be ready to bid around October 7. The District hopes to open the bids two days before Thanksgiving, on November 22.
9 comments:
Jo Posti, always speaking for the board, District, hired enablers and local moon worshipers, has made no allowances in her accelerated timeline for the possible necessity of some of the multitude of changes in the overall redesign having to go before the Planning Board, Fire Dept. and/or the Commission for reconsideration and approval.
Bill Lewis
There may be $16 million in savings now – on paper and in theory – but I question whether, when push comes to shove, there will be anything even remotely approaching that amount once this thing gets going. Frankly, I'm not sure there will any savings at all. The Federal Reserve may opt for “QE3,” or in layman's language, asset purchases by the government; think bailouts and you'll get the idea. Along with QE3 will come a spike in inflation (the Fed will dump fiat money into the economy), which will increase prices for everything and everybody; including prices for things like aluminum-wound transformers, and clear instead of colored glass. Try to imagine yourself as a contractor and having to guess how much you'll have to pay vendors and your (unionized) workers three or four years from now, and then imagine yourself as a contractor trying to deal with the Mt. Lebanon School Board. Good grief!
Richard Gideon
I'm sorry, said I was gone, but I just couldn't resist!
Not to worry, I believe Mrs. Posti's last proclamation on groundbreaking ceremonies:
"I’m proud to announce that the District will host a groundbreaking celebration for the High School project on Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 3:30 p.m. on the lawn in front of pool building. We chose this time in order to allow for all our students and staff to be a part of this event after school and we hope that every member of our community considers joining us as we celebrate the commencement of this very important project."
Oh, by the way, nice in-depth, investigative reporting PG... ever cross your mind to do some real research and get another opinion... say from a real architect or structural engineer... maybe Dan Rothschild or Disk Taylor! Nah, that'd be too hard.
Dick Saunders
Dick,
The PG doesn't even bother coming to meetings anymore. Why bother? Just call on the phone or listen to the meetings online.
Elaine
One more thing--
Bill, that's exactly why residents need to get involved, ask questions and listen to the answers from the candidates for SB and commission in November's election.
The taxes they raise... could be your own!
Dick Saunders
Dick,
The Posti-Gazette doesn't need to cover meetings anymore....Jo speaks for them as well, and they repeat almost every word.
Bill Lewis
I'm afraid I missed something here. First we were at the maximum spend according to the experts we paid millions to advise the board. After the bids came in we cut $16,000,000 from the project and we are still at maximum spend. Hmm!
This sounds the Board is more interested in being chummy with each other than they are in putting the blame where it belongs - CFB and PJD and those who were supposed to value engineer the project.
Mr. Gideon, I think you are correct about QE3 coming. If it does the winning contractor(s) may have to declare bankruptcy if he can't judge the cost of the project correctly. Another possibility is we may have a referendum in the middle of the project to bailout the winning contractor(s).
John Ewing
Why isn't Mr. Celli's August 8 update/presentation available for review by taxpayers on the district renovation blog?
I'd really like to get excited by the project news too!
Dick Saunders
Maybe Celli suggested keeping Building C again?
Sarah Morris
Post a Comment