Scottsboro Council Member Keith Smith questions the ongoing practice of cost overruns regarding city construction projects. Smith comments about the City Streetscape project, "Look across the street at the sidewalk slope. . .other cities around are not having this contract problem." Meeting the American's for Disability Act requirements has been a problem, another result of failed planning. It appears there is an approximate $26,000 overrun thus far, for the Streetscape Project.
Mr. Smith is right, the City Taxpayers have paid thousands upon thousands in construction project cost overruns to various contractors. Abuse and waste was evident in the Ball Field construction project. A failure to plan and properly investigate architectural and street infrastructure problems is resulting in cost overruns in the downtown Streetscape Project.
Many citizens have questioned the necessity of the Streetscape project's scope and state it is wasteful and not needed. There have been many parking spaces lost to the Streetscape Project. A delegation of downtown merchants briefly met with the City Council tonight discussing traffic patterns and parking around the square affecting merchant business.
The historical significance of the drive around portion of the Courthouse Square was lost in the project, instead two expensive bricked in area were placed at the south side of the square changing traffic patterns and creating hazards. It was stated there were many meetings about the project explaining the scope. However, many of the meetings were not announced properly and involved only select citizens who agreed with the plans. (photo by G. Morgan)
Videos with Streetscape plans from previous city council meeting in April 2014, including the council vote for approval of the $1.4 million project. https://arklite.blogspot.com/2014/04/scottsboro-city-council-april-14-2014.html
Video Segment, the blocked South Side of the Courthouse was not in the original approved plan as shown.
AGENDA
Place 1 City Council Candidate Names - The decision for the appointment is scheduled for the July 9, 2018 City Council Meeting.
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2 comments:
Mr. Smith and yourself is right about the overages. Seems just a few are making the decisions . The president of the council having a group to meet and discuss the traffic pattern will never happen, just as the group that was to meet and discuss the truck route has never met. Just keeping the people quite and hope they will go away. I have never heard a reason explained for the $1.4m for the ball field. Keep up the good work and asking the hard questions.
Good work and good questions. Council and Mayor spending spree need to be accountable.
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