After attending the Special Aldermen Meeting last Wednesday night I'm sitting here this morning still scratching my head over the Splash Station discussion. I reported earlier on the city finding rock while excavating for the diving pool and last Wednesday's special meeting was to address the unexpected cost of their discovery.
Mr. Doug Lee, acting Public Works Director gave a presentation showing the extent of rock found at the site and the photographs he displayed looked more to me like a quarry than the beginnings of a diving pool He stated that as of the day before they had excavated 1670 cubic feet of mostly limestone at a cost of $190,000. The city projected a contingency of $292,000 over the $6.3 million dollar cost of the Splash Station to allow for unforeseen problems and as of this writing they have used almost two-thirds of the contingency with less than 10 percent of the project completed.
A question was asked of Mr. Lee regarding the design company's response to the rock, he stated they called it an "unanticipated anomaly," (if I were to guess, our mayor probably had to find a dictionary after the meeting). I find it difficult to believe that the design company's surveyor didn't discover the rock during the core sampling, someone is going to swing for this one. One other thing that seems to have been overlooked when discussing this property; it has been known since Mayor Vickie Boedeker, that there was lots and lots of rock under it. Bodecker was pleased as punch when acquiring this "pig in a poke" but the city's joy was dashed when they found that there was so much rock under it that they couldn't even grade it for a sports field. It's been less than fifteen years since the property was bought and I can not believe that anyone in the city, except me, can not remember the history of the discovery of rock in this location. An unanticipated anomaly? I think not, I'm beginning to believe this project was rushed to the point that someone decided to put the splash station there knowing that there was rock but damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. After all, everyone knows it's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
I watched our mayor, Guccione through the meeting and on several occasions the aldermen asked for a decision...it never came. At least twice the alderman asked the Mayor what dollar limit to put on the cost overrun before they are forced to pull the plug on the location. Not only did Guccione not commit to any amount he appeared to be disengaged in the conversation, almost like he didn't understand the question. Alderman Rick Stokes asked, "Mayor, when do we stop?" Mayor Guccione gave no answer, even though it is his responsibility, he looked at everyone else in the room to give the answer.
The big question that was not answered was "How did we get here? On several occasions when it was asked, City Attorney Paul Rost said that staff members should not answer the question. Why? The only reason he would advise not answering the question is because somebody is going to be sued by the City. Where was Guccione all this time when he was supposed to be on top of this situation? The answer to that question is simple, he doesn't know what he is supposed to be doing. It's easier to divert attention, maybe to the extent of creating a controversy over renaming streets rather than face real issues which he has no concept of understanding.
We should not be here at this point, frankly I blame the city. The design company has some fault but the city knew the problems with this site long before this issue arose. Our Mayor should have been more actively seeking answers than rallying activists to rush this project through. He did it as an alderman and he did it as our mayor, he is most to blame and the most useless and destructive politician in Wentzville! It's only begun, Wentzville has more than three years left of this bumbling idiot.
A note to the Aldermen: Quit saving Guccione's ass, let him hang himself and then have him removed from office!
A question was asked of Mr. Lee regarding the design company's response to the rock, he stated they called it an "unanticipated anomaly," (if I were to guess, our mayor probably had to find a dictionary after the meeting). I find it difficult to believe that the design company's surveyor didn't discover the rock during the core sampling, someone is going to swing for this one. One other thing that seems to have been overlooked when discussing this property; it has been known since Mayor Vickie Boedeker, that there was lots and lots of rock under it. Bodecker was pleased as punch when acquiring this "pig in a poke" but the city's joy was dashed when they found that there was so much rock under it that they couldn't even grade it for a sports field. It's been less than fifteen years since the property was bought and I can not believe that anyone in the city, except me, can not remember the history of the discovery of rock in this location. An unanticipated anomaly? I think not, I'm beginning to believe this project was rushed to the point that someone decided to put the splash station there knowing that there was rock but damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. After all, everyone knows it's easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
I watched our mayor, Guccione through the meeting and on several occasions the aldermen asked for a decision...it never came. At least twice the alderman asked the Mayor what dollar limit to put on the cost overrun before they are forced to pull the plug on the location. Not only did Guccione not commit to any amount he appeared to be disengaged in the conversation, almost like he didn't understand the question. Alderman Rick Stokes asked, "Mayor, when do we stop?" Mayor Guccione gave no answer, even though it is his responsibility, he looked at everyone else in the room to give the answer.
The big question that was not answered was "How did we get here? On several occasions when it was asked, City Attorney Paul Rost said that staff members should not answer the question. Why? The only reason he would advise not answering the question is because somebody is going to be sued by the City. Where was Guccione all this time when he was supposed to be on top of this situation? The answer to that question is simple, he doesn't know what he is supposed to be doing. It's easier to divert attention, maybe to the extent of creating a controversy over renaming streets rather than face real issues which he has no concept of understanding.
We should not be here at this point, frankly I blame the city. The design company has some fault but the city knew the problems with this site long before this issue arose. Our Mayor should have been more actively seeking answers than rallying activists to rush this project through. He did it as an alderman and he did it as our mayor, he is most to blame and the most useless and destructive politician in Wentzville! It's only begun, Wentzville has more than three years left of this bumbling idiot.
A note to the Aldermen: Quit saving Guccione's ass, let him hang himself and then have him removed from office!
How much harm could be done to the city if the aldermen quit saving the mayor?
ReplyDeleteas a new resident of wentzville i've only been following the city government for about a year and i agree that mayor guccione is perhaps inept. what i'd like to know is this: if the aldermen continue covering for him amd if sometyhing goes wrong because guccione has said nothing wouldn't the blame fall on the aldermen who actually made the decision?
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