Sunday, September 6, 2020

 Town governance; there is a thing called the weekly warrant and it involves invoices, bills, etc., that need to be signed off on by selectmen before they can be passed on to the town treasurer so they can be paid, with taxpayer money. This week, there is one such item, in a stand alone warrant; it states school district and it is for an item of the new elementary school, specifically the repair of the caulking on the sidewalk between concrete and granite curb. It is a little more than $25,000.00 and it is to redo work previously done. So, was the previous work done correctly? Is it a water / drainage issue (poor design), is the issue improper preparation, lack of inspection and oversight? The question remains, should you have to pay for the work twice? You paid tens of thousands of dollars for an Owners Project Manager (required for public projects one million dollars or more) with a clerk of the works, that is suppose to look out for you and your property (the school building project). Some thing was not done right and someone was apparently not watching, so, as a selectmen, responsible for signing those weekly warrants, I have no intention of signing off on this item. Yes, three other selectmen can sign it and it will move on down the line and be paid. I just think it should not be paid by you, it should be the responsibility of the OPM and the company that originally did the work. As a point of interest, both parties are now working on a new project; they are both on the same job site. The construction cost total for the new school is a bit over 32 million dollars with a little over 800 thousand dollars in change orders.

Note: The total warrant item for new school is $25,730.00, my bad, old man moment, but still BS, warrant reads - ATC reprogramming at $5,980.00 and cut out and recaulk sidewalk to curb at $19,750.00, and I still refuse to sign off on this; you should not have to pay twice for bad work.

1 comment:

  1. Mr. Bennett,

    It is nice to see you attempting to hold the OPM and Contractor accountable for increased costs but that might lead to accountability and I seriously doubt that is how your Board will vote.

    Appreciate the seriousness you take in your work.

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