Thursday, October 25, 2007

Consultant a no-show

Here is the WRAs take on last night's discussion of the pool consultant:

The Town Council on Wednesday met with the Parks and Recreation Commission and members of the Energy Commission to discuss a $20,000 report that was supposed to give the town some options on how to make the pool energy efficient. The consultant hired to write the report, Acquattica Pools & Water Parks of Voorheesville, N.Y., didn't show up. The report came several months later than expected and didn't provide alternatives to lower costs at the pool (by Lauresha Xhihani).

Tim White
Town Council, 4th District

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

It will cost $1.6 to $4.5 million to put a permanent cover over the pool? That really narrows things down!

Whose bright idea was it anyway to waste $20,000.00 on these consultants?

The town manager and town council could have gotten better information from a ouija board.

Anonymous said...

"money for nuthin, and your chicks for free"

Looks like someone took advantage of our "Dire Straits" and unloaded a "Sting" on us....we should have just said "I want my MTV"

Anonymous said...

Tim, Did the consultant get paid already? If so, that doesn't make sense. What did this report tell us that we don't already know? Seems like a waste of money to me.

Tim White said...

10:41... I've even asked for a refund because... yes... this pool consultant was $20,000 flushed down the toilet.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to Steve Caroll who suggested that use the consultant that was chosen.

Anonymous said...

In fairness Steve Carroll suggested USA Swim as the main consultant. USA Swim works for free and on issues of memberships, programs, management of pools; they do not and cannot provide consultation on HVAC and mechanical engineering issues. There are two areas of the pool that needed to be looked at; programatic, that is everything else other than energy and the second was energy. The majority of the 65 pages report deals with programatic issues, what they found and what is suggested to remedy the lack of revenue. We all knew that more memberships and or higher rates would bring in more revenue.

The energy side was done by Aquattica; a mechanic engineering firm that USA Swim may use from time to time. They are the ones that did the energy study or lack thereof, they are the ones that failed to show up and they are the ones that collected the 20k. We could have had the same study done in a shorter period of time at a cost of $2,400 a year ago. When the new council took office they decided to pass on the already approved local HVAC engineering firm for the pool consultant. So why did we walk away from a locally approved engineering firm with past experience on pools for an out of state firm that appears not to have met the deliverables of the contract? USA Swim will work with any qualified HVAC engineering firm, and our local guy met their requirements.

Anonymous said...

Today is Hillary Clinton's birthday - happy 60th!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I find it highly sexist and ill-informed that anyone would post a saying that angry women every where are burning flags in celebration of Senator Clinton’s birthday. First off, I do not recall Hillary Clinton ever burning a flag or advocating for the burning of flags. Perhaps, also, if the nation had been run by “angry women” we would be in a lot better shape then we are under the current presidential leadership that has severely harmed the nation on every level, domestic and foreign.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Obviously the proceeding comment came from a sexist male who has not yet learned that every opinion a women has is not solely based on female biological functions (for lack of a better term). Get with the times, a women can have a view and while you may not agree that does not mean she is in menopause. Plus, take a look at Hillary Clinton’s polls. I can assure you that those numbers are not made up by women voters going through menopause. In fact, with numbers like those and a clear lead in the polls it is clear that many men are supporting the Senator.

Anonymous said...

"I find it highly sexist and ill-informed that anyone would post a saying that angry women every where are burning flags in celebration of Senator Clinton’s birthday..."

The poster who suggested that someone is burning flags to celebrate Clinton's birthday was specifically referring to a previous poster calling herself "angrywomyn." Her off-the-wall comment is the fifth one down from the top under the thread "The PO delays continue."

As a recent college student I can say that angrywomyn's radical feminism and racism is not untypical of campus activists who support Clinton and Obama.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

So it's all a matter of having two x chromosomes as to whether one is qualified to hold political office?

Anonymous said...

You can look at the Republican parties slate for town council for an answer.

Anonymous said...

Funny, I recall the local Democrats demanded that two very competent women lose their jobs last fall, Ms. Rell and Ms. Johnson. So much for gender equality

Anonymous said...

The republican part in this town could not find one woman to run for office, what does that tell you?

Anonymous said...

I do not think someone should be voted in to office or retain their position because they are women. Dems did not say Ms Rell and Ms Johnson should lose their position because they are women; they did so because they have a differing view on what "competent" is. Luckily, this year in town there are competent and well qualified women candidates. Problem is that they come solely from the democratic side. Apparently the republicans could not, or did not, find even one qualified women willing to run on their ticket.

Anonymous said...

once again, identity politics.

Perhaps we ought to be like Ulster and just vote for candidates who go to the same church we go to, eh?

Anonymous said...

On the campaign trail...

I was campaigning at Everybodies this past Sunday. This is an exercise I suggest everyone do at some point in their lives.

I offered my palm card to a voter as she was leaving the store. She said she would never vote for me after I told her I was Republican. This kind of commentary can be expected but against my better judgment I asked her tell me why.

She started off by stating there were many studies that proved large class sizes (30 was her number) are very detrimental to learning. I couldn't say for sure one way or the other but I asked her if she had children in the system and she said they had gone through it. When asked, she declined to say if they had a good or bad time with their experience. I asked if she knew what the school budget was in dollars. She said she was very offended by my question.

Clearly I was evil in her eyes and I wasn't going anywhere but foggy bottom on this one. She did finally tell me that both she and her husband were retired teachers now working for non-profits.

By now, “Have a nice day...thanks for the small talk” was out of the question and she stormed off to her Subaru wagon.

Now for what I didn't say but what I often wonder about. Is there any glory and satisfaction in working for the government or government subsidized non profits? Would this person have been happier making a payroll and not bargaining for one? Would volunteering be more personally rewarding? When will people be liberated from such narrow thinking?

Everyone supports education. Any thinking person appreciates the hard work the educational community provides. I have teachers in my extended family. Virtually no one in town wants schools or any of our kids to fail. And yes, everyone complains about taxes in one form or another.

I will be the first to admit that I can get on my high horse about an issue I feel passionately about but I refuse to think anyone that identifies themselves as a democrat or a liberal has no valid reason for being. This would be wrong. ( My Dad is a Democrat, my mother a Republican)

I am glad this former teacher isn't teaching anymore though she did teach me one thing. I must work harder and smarter.

Anonymous said...

Tim S., Don't get too concerned about her comments. Obviously she did not know the numbers when it came to the BoE budget. I don't think she knows the class size numbers either. Our early grades have a very low class size in keeping with the studies that show class size does matter in the early grades.
I have teachers in my family also. In fact, my Mom (God rest her soul) had you as a student when you were at Dodd. This is the God's honest truth..she always commented through the years how you were one of her favorite students (you and Brian D.) Remember? It was her favorite class over many years of teaching at Dodd.
So hold your head up high, Tim. You have my vote!!
sz