Update from Council liaison to PBC - hWg 37
This is the unedited text of an email sent to the Council from Councilman Matt Altieri today. It is an update on hotWatergate the Norton boiler project:
Hello Fellow Council Members
Wanted to give you a brief update on the status of the Norton Boiler project.
I had a chance to speak to one of the managers from White Bowman today and he said the project is on schedule at this point. The boilers have all been assembled and they are awaiting the delivery of the control panel and burners. There have been several minor change orders having to do with the floor and one of the doors. Apperantly these change orders would have been done no matter who did the project. I will get more details about this at the Public Building Commission meeting which is Wednesday. But all in all, the project has been running along smoothly all summer.
Best Regards
Matt Altieri
Washington DC spin... Cheshire style!
Tim White
9 comments:
lol....I needed a good laugh before calling it a day!
"Apperantly" Mr. Altieri isn't really sure what is going on over there, he is just taking their word for it.
I do have a question, if anyone else who was doing the project would have had to put in for these change orders, why weren't they part of the original bid? Is it something that nobody noticed when putting together a bid package?
I always thought a "change order" was done when the client deviates from the original plan. Did we do that? Why?
"Apperantly" Mr. Bowman will get his money 1 way or another!
We never got a clear answer to "the disappearing letter."
We never got a clear answer on the delay in distributing The Corruption Memo.
A lot of things on this project are horrendous.
And not that I care much for her politics, but Nancy Pelosi had a point about needing a change to get to the bottom of things.
Cheshire needs to change some elected officials as well.
Cheshire needs to change some elected officials as well......... ABSOLUTELY, but not who you are referring to!
How very interesting. I am reassured.
But wait, could it be that the concept of our town run as a business which relies upon a CEO who reports to a board of directors isn’t really the model being used. This voter is baffled as to why a town councilor is reporting on a very technical construction project. And he is reporting on a hearsay basis at best. It is not clear to us out here in public-ville just what credentials and licenses the reporting town council member has other than he was elected to a council seat.
The town does employ a certified building inspector, a fire marshal, and no doubt has a licensed engineer somewhere on its staff. How about the reporting council member reporting on the details of what the building inspector, fire marshal and licensed engineer have say about progress.
If they don’t know or if it is wishy-washy then the council member should be asking questions about those important town functions. If the council can’t rely upon those the town pays to make certain construction projects meet standards then why should any of us tax payers feel reassured when we get a building permit or hire a contractor who gets a permit to build or fix something for us anyway.
It is pretty amazing that WB whose principals have involvement with the F&S fiasco, would actually respond to a single council member on the side and privately brief that single council member. Could it be time for said council member to recuse himself publicly from any further council and/or town activities associated with town business dealings with the particular vendor?
Maybe it’s time to think more about the importance of honest local politics and less about being a town in love with playing big business role.
Tim, Just a note to say that I'm glad you post the minutes of meetings and keep us updated on what's going on with projects. This Norton project was a fiasco from the start of the bidding and if it wasn't for you updating us, we wouldn't know what's going on.
Keep up the good work!
sz
"The town does employ a certified building inspector, a fire marshal, and no doubt has a licensed engineer somewhere on its staff."
Well stated. These are the people that should be monitoring this contractor. Also, Florio since Florio can be so involved with the turf, then why can't he be involved with the progress of this important work.
What's Altieri doing? Is he trying to make the council feel good.
Maybe Altieri should be asking questions about why storage tanks were installed at the biofuel plant without P&Z approval and without building permit and why after the installation Cheshire Investment went before P&Z for approval of a done deal.
8:38 pm stated the town building inspector should be monitoring the work. Good idea. How come the council member took it upon himself to go around our building inspector for an update of progress from the point of view of the hired contractor? Isn’t the town supposed to be representing the owners point of view and not the builders point of view in this case. Or is at least this one council member unaware of his elected role? Maybe it’s really time for training on issues beyond simple decorum too.
An easy explanation:
The last blog on this issue correctly pointed out that Mr. Altieri had reported on the project as PBC liason, but had not been to a single PBC meeting since the project was started.
Now he conveniently runs into a Bowman and is able to issue a supplemental report to the Council. They were probably both at an ethics class. Don't count on a passing grade.
Someone else on this blog said it very well: the people involved are counting on the fact that those in town either don't know, understand, or care about these types of issues and projects. They also obviously think we are very stupid in general.
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