|
|
Post by oldetowne on Jun 13, 2007 15:55:03 GMT -5
Someone else will have to do that. They have caller ID at channel 14 and they won't take my calls.
|
|
|
|
Post by SyZyGy on Jun 13, 2007 21:40:17 GMT -5
Someone else will have to do that. They have caller ID at channel 14 and they won't take my calls.
Nice try, OT.
I just LOVE your style
of HUMOR !
Sy |
|
|
|
Post by oldetowne on Dec 7, 2007 7:08:12 GMT -5
It didn't make it into any printed media, but the Council voted to settle the dispute with the general contractor on Phase I of the Town Hall/Library Debacle for $300,000. In order to do so, the Council had to dip into the town's savings account for nearly $100,000. Keep this in mind next time anyone tells you that the project was handled well, done on time, and under budget. In addition, there was an article in the Courant recently about the progress of the library. Here is the link, so that the copyright gestapo doesn't chase us all down - www.courant.com/news/local/hr/hc-wetlibra1206.artdec06,0,3683996.story To be generous, we can say that we are only 202 days into Phase II of the project, although it was originally initiated in 1999. Noteworthy in that article was an expected reopening of the library in the Fall of 2008. I was amused to see that it had already slipped from the "firm date" of June 2008 that had been used repeatedly and adamantly during the recent campaign. The following is from the 9/4/07 Council minutes: "Joe Coombs said the date on the sign is the date the Committee looks forward to. If it can be shortened, the Committee will make every effort to do so. The Committee would like nothing better than to finish ahead of schedule. Councilor Cascio said so the project is still on for completion in January 2009. Joe Coombs said no, June 2008 is the completion date for the building. Councilor Cascio restated that the Town is looking at June 2008 for complete use of the Town Hall and Library." I wonder how many people in town hall knew that was an inaccurate statement and never bothered to correct it. |
|
|
|
Post by Dr.Ken Sokolowski on Dec 7, 2007 13:45:56 GMT -5
A commentary and opinion based on:
courant.com/news/local/hr/hc-wetlibra1206.artdec06,0,3683996.story
Courant.com
Library Space Crunch Eases
Renovation Work Continues At Site
By ANN MARIE SOMMA
Courant Staff Writer
December 6, 2007
WETHERSFIELD —
Space and services at the town library have expanded as construction crews continue to renovate the library and town hall in the municipal complex...
"We are growing inch by inch," said Liz Kirkpatrick, of the library's adult services division.
[At this rate, the library will (may?) indeed be finished by March or April of 2009 - the date estimated by the Town Manager in Spring 2007!]
Since October, the library has been operating out of a temporary space on the ground floor, where patrons have been able to access a limited selection of books, DVDs, CDs, magazines and newspapers....
[Remember, that the Town Manager has not decided (is it for her to decide?) how to properly name the three floors of the building. There are two "ground floors" - that level with the Silas Deane Highway (bottom floor) and that level with the Town Hall public parking lot (middle floor). There there is the top floor. Such a simple naming convention would remove a lot of confusion: top, middle and bottom floor.]
...Construction at the 1958 library is part of a larger, $750,000 project voters approved in 1999, which began with the construction of a new police station on the Silas Deane Highway. The project calls for improvements to town hall, including compliance with fire and life safety codes, a new roof, installation of fire sprinklers, a new fire alarm system and new windows....
The entire project won't be complete until the fall of 2008, when the library will occupy all three floors of the renovated building.
[This is news! According to the eager politicians of this autumn, the project was supposed to be done by Spring 2008, just some 3-5 months away at this point! This does not even jibe with the Manager's estimate some 6-7 months ago!]
"More space for the public means more service for the public," Kirkpatrick said....
[This debacle -Town Hall / Library renovation - was one of the reasons why the public voted 2.2 : 1 against the bonding referendum on last month. ]
Contact Ann Marie Somma at asomma@courant.com. Original, complete article is Copyright © 2007, The Hartford Courant
|
|
|
|
Post by cruzrt on Apr 19, 2008 9:16:31 GMT -5
Everybody needs to read the Town Manager's Weekly report that was posted on April 18th. Significant problems have just now been discovered in the empty building which will likely cause further delays and expenditures. Is this corruption or incompetence? (Maybe both).
|
|
|
|
Post by oldetowne on Apr 21, 2008 6:22:48 GMT -5
Cruzrt - I assume this is the portion that you are referring to? "Town Hall/Library Renovations: Attached is a Budget vs. Spending Report for the project, and a copy of the bid results for the library shelving. The shelving bids are being reviewed by Laurel Goodgion and the shelving consultant. Results will come to you in May. Our HVAC consultant walked the project with a representative of Crest Mechanical. They have found numerous areas of existing piping and insulation deficiencies on all levels of the Town Hall that need to be addressed. Insulation on the existing piping has been either breached or was never properly installed. This has caused mold growth on a substantial amount of existing piping. The insulation has to be removed. The same has been found on the condensation piping for the HVAC units on the upper two floors. The Building Committee is reviewing the options right now but this is unanticipated work that has been found. This will probably cause a delay in the project but we are not sure yet how long of a delay. We may also have to go to you, the Town Council, for additional funds as the work on these old pipes was not anticipated to have to be replaced. I will give you a full report on this as soon as the Building Committee has a recommendation." Aside from the 70K hole in the budget for library shelving (who would have known that you would need to have shelves to put books on?  !!!), the mold/insulation issue is one that clearly should have been anticipated or investigated earlier than year nine of the police station/town hall/library project. The constant refrain is that "it's an old building and we don't have the drawings". Well, that has nothing to do with this latest problem. Also, the Francis Stillman building was over 90 years old and was successfully renovated. What is so different here? How many more secrets are hidden inside the walls at town hall? Maybe I am being naive, but I chalk it up to incompetence by both town staff and the volunteer oversight of the project. The fact that the chairman of the building committee is the vice chairman of the Democratic town committee may explain why nobody demands that anyone be held accountable. |
|
|
|
Post by oldetowne on May 8, 2008 6:05:25 GMT -5
Adding Insult to Injury....
As we learned earlier, mold on pipes due to improper insulation will leave us with the attractive yellow styrofoam facade on the town hall for a couple of months longer than anticipated. Here's the story from Bonnie's last management report:
"Town Hall/Library Renovations: Because of the recent discovery of rotted pipes in the ceiling that have to be replaced, the contractor's most recent project plans show Town Hall moving out of the Library space back to Town Hall right after Labor Day, and the Library completion by Kronenberger around the second week of October. The original move date had been June. The stone panels will be delivered for the outside of Town Hall in the middle of May. Installation will begin shortly thereafter."
As if that weren't bad enough, there's another little secret that hasn't seen the light of day.
When the town borrows money using tax exempt bonds, it is supposed to expend that money according to a particular schedule. As one can easily understand, the town hall - library project is far far far far behind that schedule. Because of this, the town is being assessed what is called an arbitrage penalty, payable to the IRS. It's beyond what I can understand, but it appears to be a penalty for earning interest on money that sits in the bank when it it supposed to have been spent on a project. It is designed to prevent towns from borrowing money on a tax free basis and then investing it to generate income rather than completing a project.
Here, the arbitrage was entirely unintended and arose from the amateurish nature of the project "oversight". Still, some of our hard earned tax dollars are going to the IRS as a penalty for the negligence of our town staff and the building committee. The amount is a closely guarded secret, and it may in fact not be a huge number, but at this point even losing another $0.01 is an insult to the taxpayers of Wethersfield.
|
|
RGarrey
Gold Member
WCTV "Wethersfield Live" Channel 14
Posts: 84
|
Post by RGarrey on May 8, 2008 10:05:46 GMT -5
Adding even more insult to injury I received a letter at home from the Friends of the Library asking residents to donate money to the library because there is no money left in the bond to buy furniture and fixtures. Boy doesn't this sound familiar(Police Station). It has become obvious that politics have absolutely taken precedence over what's best for the town. The management of this project should have been changed years ago but unfortunately it wasn't and now we are in a hole so deep that it is too late to recover.
I think it is time to change the name of this thread to, "Many years and counting".
|
|
stvman
Bronze Member
Posts: 23 
|
Post by stvman on Sept 4, 2008 9:35:36 GMT -5
Some great news: the Town Hall office space is just about completed and the Town's offices should be able to move out of the Library by mid September.
OOPS: the moving company that we have contracted with has just gone bankrupt. So, town has to do rebidding to find a new mover. Current estimated move date = UNKNOWN.
|
|
|
|
Post by oldetowne on Sept 8, 2008 6:24:43 GMT -5
Here's the latest on the library (9/5/08)....
Town Hall move update
The move back to Town Hall has been delayed because more work needs to be done at Town Hall.
The move has been rescheduled to Wed. Oct. 1 through Fri. Oct. 3.
I have been told that it will be necessary to close the Library for that Thursday and Friday, for safety reasons because the movers will be working right across the public’s path into the Library.
We will use those closed days as days for staff to clean out files, and do other discarding in preparation for our own moves.
The good news is that, given this much notice, we are able to block out due dates. Joan has contacted Connect and asked them to block out Oct. 1 through 6 as due dates. So materials won’t be due until Tuesday, Oct. 7. That should help a bit.
The Town has found another moving company because the moving division of the Amodio company has gone out of business. (Apparently the storage division is remaining in business.)
At any rate, the Library’s books are not stored with Amodio. They are stored with National Library Relocations.
At this point I am still hopeful that we can stick with our January 20 opening date. There is some cushion in our timeline for re-opening the Library.
A lot will depend on when Kronenberger, the contractor, is able to complete the work at the Town Hall and then the work that remains at the Library. Their official finish date was October 8. That will probably change.
|
|
|
|
Post by cruzrt on Sept 8, 2008 13:34:28 GMT -5
Mr. Oldetowne: is your latest posting an excerpt from an official town memo, or are you actually a town official? I see a lot of "I" and "we" in your post.
|
|
|
|
Post by oldetowne on Sept 9, 2008 6:11:47 GMT -5
The text was a memo from the library director.
|
|
|
|
Post by davidz on Sept 12, 2008 12:49:08 GMT -5
Here's news from the column from the Sept 08 edition of Wethersfield Life. It's the 'From the Mayor's Desk' column, written by Andrew Adil.
"Our town hall is finally set to reopen completely. The second phase of this project, approved by our electorate in 2005 is finally completed. I cannot thank the Police Station/Town Hall/Library Building Committee nearly enough for what they have accomplished."
|
|
|
|
Post by Dr.Ken Sokolowski on Oct 24, 2008 14:55:48 GMT -5
Click for full, on-line article
10/23/2008
Request for additional funds sparks exchange
By Ted Glanzer, Correspondent
A contractor's request for an additional $118,575 to complete the renovations of the Town Hall's council chambers sparked a pointed exchange between two council members at a meeting Monday evening at the Silas Deane Middle School.
Deputy Mayor Paul Montinieri and town councilor John Console traded sharp words over a $268,575 proposed change order submitted by general contractor Kronenberger & Sons for improvements to the council chambers, which is part of the ongoing $9 million Town Hall/Library renovations project.
The original Town Hall/Library renovation budget, which is finally nearing completion, initially included $150,000 for renovations to the council chambers.
Shortly after the bonding was approved for Phase II of the project in 2005, however, the plans for the chambers were changed to convert the room into an emergency shelter/command center.
In addition, town officials determined that the initial $150,000 outlay would not be sufficient to fully transform the dilapidated chambers into a meeting room that would be a source of civic pride, particularly when compared to sister towns like Rocky Hill, Newington and Berlin.
For $268,575, the council chambers will be furnished with new a new sound system, dais, carpeting, projectors, cabling, lighting, and seating.
To go forward with the work, the Town Council on Monday evening faced two issues: first, how to cover the $118,000 shortfall; and second, whether to approve the work as a change order to Kronenberger, Phase II's contractor, or put the project up for bid.
Declining to use its contingency fund for the project in an uncertain economic climate, the Town Council in a 7-1 vote awarded the work to Kronenberger by reallocating $117,000 that was initially set aside for a new security system and self-checkout stations for the Wethersfield Library.
Coincidentally, the library has been in on-going discussions with a regional consortium about joining in a collaborative purchase for checkout systems, which would ensure that every library in the area had the same equipment, making it easier for patrons to take out materials at one library and return them at another.
Because the consortium purchases would not take place until well into 2009, the funds initially allocated were freed up for the council chambers.
The Town Council also decided to have Kronenberger handle the work because the bidding process, which would delay the project for at least several more months, would not guarantee that the town would save any money.
The whole affair was too much for Console, who lashed out at Mike Turner, director of public works, and Joe Coombs, chairman of the Town Hall/Library Renovation project's building committee, for asking the council for additional funds.
"This project has been run so poorly that if you were building your own house, you would be broke and have nothing to show for it except sticks," Console said. "It's mind boggling. . . . Words can't describe how I'm feeling right now. This is unconscionable."
Montinieri, who questioned Turner and Coombs at length over the proposed change order, responded that Console was "over dramatizing" the issue.
"I don't think we need to be grandstanding," said Montinieri, who, like most of the other councilors, expressed their trepidation over spending additional money on the project.[
Councilor John Cascio said that he did not want to be "a penny wide, but a pound foolish" by cutting back on the council chamber, only to have to revisit the issue 10 years down the road. "It makes good sense to do it the right way the first time," Cascio said.
For his part, Mayor Andrew Adil said that he understood the level of frustration over having to addre ss the issue, adding that the checkout machines and new security system were low-level priorities for the library.
"This work has to get done; it cannot wait any longer," Adil said of the council chambers.
The work on the council chambers is expected to take eight weeks.....
Energy consulting bid award tabled.....
2009 Meeting schedule approved.....
White Cane Safety Day proclaimed.....
©Wethersfield Post 2008
|
|
!!!), the mold/insulation issue is one that clearly should have been anticipated or investigated earlier than year nine of the police station/town hall/library project.