Taxpayers will pay for city’s blunder

[Steve52]

By CHRISTINE VENDEL
The Kansas City Star

A delay in taking soil samples at the site of a new police training academy will cost Kansas City taxpayers an extra $212,500, police commissioners said Tuesday.

The additional money will be paid to a construction company that could not work for 118 days while it awaited results of the soil samples.

In addition, when necessary soil samples finally were conducted, they showed problems with the soil and underlying rock that will require nearly $300,000 to fix.

The site also lacks water and electricity because of unforeseen conditions. That means construction workers must truck in 50 loads of water and temporarily hook up power to the site at a cost of about $29,000.

In all, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners on Tuesday approved $540,888 in change orders for the $27 million police academy being built at Pleasant Valley Road and Shoal Creek Parkway in Kansas City, North. The money to pay for the increases will come from a $1 million contingency fund included in the cost of the facility.

“Who’s managing this?â€

[kucer]

the city can't run a freaking project like this, yet we should trust them with this biosphere project over the TSC???? 

oh boy....  let me predict an unforeseen problem with this ridiculous biosphere project.  they won't think about wind and how it's going to fill that roof like a sail and have it blast off into Columbia.  hopefully for MU fans it will land on Mike Alden...

[quote]“There’s so much money in this project that no one thinks that they’re accountable for it — that it’s somebody else’s money. But it’s really everybody’s money,â€

[aknowledgeableperson]

the city can't run a freaking project like this, yet we should trust them with this biosphere project over the TSC???? 

oh boy....  let me predict an unforeseen problem with this ridiculous biosphere project.  they won't think about wind and how it's going to fill that roof like a sail and have it blast off into Columbia.  hopefully for MU fans it will land on Mike Alden...

hmmm.. i think we'll be hearing this exact thing again down the line with this giant money grab that is about to possibly get approved.

City - Police Department Building

County - TSC

Two different entities.

Oh, by the way

City - Sprint Arena

[knucklehead]

This article is an example of an inherient bias in media reporting. The costs overruns experienced by someone like Sprint are not reported but cost overruns of an government entity are reported. The lack of reporting on cost overruns on private projects causes some to conclude that cost overruns are far more prevalant on government projects than private projects. In reality, private entities do not make there cost overrun information public.

The overruns are within the $1 million contingency included in the budget. Thus, the fair conclusion is that the project is still under budget. Yet the headline and article portray this as a blunder and the newspaper commits fairly substantial column inches to the story (the headline in the paper is oversized and bold).  Gosh, the project is still under budget but the sky is falling. I wonder is this could be a reflection of the economic incentives newspapers have to sensationalize and pander.

[Steve52]

http://www.mwhglobal.com/bio_global.asp

Someones in charge aren't they?

[shinatoo]

Those are all cost that would have come up anyway, if the test had been done on time or not. The only real loss was project delays. Not saying it shouldn't have been done early on as stated but to say there is an additional cost is inaccurate.

Samples done on time or not, the project would have incurred those cost. That's why they build in contingency money to the budget.

Mountian out of a molehill.

[Thaine]

Not sure but I think its a $12MM facility. 

[GRID]

Same stuff happens everyday in the private industry, I know it's not tax dollars (sometimes it is indirectly), but it's just the way the worlds turns, you can't predict everything 100% accurate all the time.

A lot of projects get done on time and under budget, but you will never see a thread about that, nor will you see press coverage.

[dangerboy]

^ Right.  We have lots of projects that have been successful, on time and on budget... Catch basin replacement, KCI terminal renovations, Liberty Memorial renovation, Union Station renovation, Chouteau Bridge replacement, Grandview Triangle rebuilding, massive street resurfacing in the last two years, I-70 rebuilding in the E-Jack, etc.

[Thaine]

Not much mileage in the Star coming out and saying what a great job the City is doing.  Just won't happen. 

[shinatoo]

^ Right.  We have lots of projects that have been successful, on time and on budget... Catch basin replacement, KCI terminal renovations, Liberty Memorial renovation, Union Station renovation, Chouteau Bridge replacement, Grandview Triangle rebuilding, massive street resurfacing in the last two years, I-70 rebuilding in the E-Jack, etc.

IRS Building.

[shaffe]

City - Police Department Building

County - TSC

Two different entities.

maybe that's the scariest part of all

[Thaine]

City builds its own projects (with some consultants) and issued about 130 Notice to Proceeds last year.  County hires consultant/managers by the project and does a lot of Parks type landscaping and some storm sewer work out in the County.  And I think a few projects like the Stroud's street/Bridge fixing and maybe they're widening Colbern road.  Maybe 5-10 Notices to Proceed a year.

Who is going to watch the TSC work?

[Roanoker]

Not much mileage in the Star coming out and saying what a great job the City is doing.  Just won't happen. 

That's *our* job. Oh, wait. I'm just a surface lot. It's *your* job! 

[Deleted User]

why wasn't this built downtown on one of the many, ugly surface lots near the Police Station?

Just one more shortsighted oversight in a sea of thousands of small decisions that decentralize the city.

Sprawl it out there KC!

[shinatoo]

why wasn't this built downtown on one of the many, ugly surface lots near the Police Station?

Just one more shortsighted oversight in a sea of thousands of small decisions that decentralize the city.

Sprawl it out there KC!

It's a huge complex that has a police station, driving range, and indor and outdoor firing range. Plus, it generates no tax revenue so it might as well be in a greenfield.

[aknowledgeableperson]

^^^^^
Yes, that is just what we need - an outdoor shooting range downtown.  michael is criticizing the thing and he doesn't even know what it is.

[Gladstoner]

It's a huge complex that has a police station, driving range, and indor and outdoor firing range. Plus, it generates no tax revenue so it might as well be in a greenfield.

Are you describing the proposed academy or the east loop? 

[shinatoo]

Are you describing the proposed academy or the east loop? 

[Deleted User]

^^^^^
Yes, that is just what we need - an outdoor shooting range downtown.  michael is criticizing the thing and he doesn't even know what it is.

you've never heard of an indoor shooting range? And if they need to use long range they can drive out to the country and plink.

It's a huge complex that has a police station, driving range, and indor and outdoor firing range. Plus, it generates no tax revenue so it might as well be in a greenfield.

No tax revenue automatically justifies keeping this out of downtown... NO.
There are acres of undeveloped lots near city hall and the Police station that could have used an urban police academy. It also would have made downtown appear safer.