At Edison Research we are proud that the exit polls we provided to the members of the National Election Pool (ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC) will be the principal information guiding these discussions.
— from the Edison Research website, November 7, 2018
According to the exit polls conducted by Edison Research, voter turnout on Tuesday, November 6 was strong. Their team of 6,000 poll watchers determined that more than 47 percent of the voting-eligible population cast a ballot in the midterm elections on Tuesday.
Perhaps that doesn’t sound too impressive to some readers — that almost half the eligible voters cast ballots — but for a US midterm election, that’s the highest turnout for a midterm since 1966, when 49 percent of the population showed up to vote. Only 37 percent voted in the 2014 midterms, and only 41 percent in 2010.
I’m not sure how accurate the exit polling might be, however, in spite of Edison Research’s years of expertise. Here in Colorado, we now have actual ballot counts — unofficial, because some ballots might still be arriving from military and overseas voters. According to the Secretary of State’s office, 2.4 million of Colorado’s 3.9 million registered voters cast ballots this year — a 60 percent turnout.
Here in Archuleta County, we had 6,910 ballots counted, out of 11,097 registered voters. That’s a 62 percent turnout.
Of those Archuleta County voters, a majority didn’t like the idea of a 15-year sales tax increase — to be used for a new County Detention Center and Sheriff’s Office, and other unidentified “Justice System Capital Improvements.” The language in Ballot Measure 1A had suggested that the additional one percent sales tax would have raised in the neighborhood of $44 million dollars. (Or maybe more?) Of that amount, about $26 million would’ve been allocated toward a new jail and offices, with about $19 million going to actual construction and the rest going to bond investors. Where the rest would have been spent? Who knows?
A 2017 price estimate of $17 million had been endorsed by various experts, but the core design work had been done by local architect Brad Ash with the assistance of Denver-based Reilly Johnson Architects. The estimated price had gone up by about $2 million on the 2018 ballot.
The cost of a new building depends upon several items. First is the cost of the land. Second is the cost of design. Permits and fees. Materials. Labor…
Size.
The major determinant in the cost of a construction project is often the size. Typically, a 30,000 square foot building is about twice the price of a 15,000 square foot building. Generally speaking.
To be a bit more specific. Local activist Mark Weiler last summer proposed to the BOCC that they should downsize the size of the proposed jail from a 54-bed facility to something more in line with the recent inmate counts quoted by the Sheriff’s office — that is, an average of less than 20 inmates per day. Mr. Weiler quoted architect Brad Ash as stating that downsizing the project to a 30-bed jail might cut 40 percent off the final cost.
The BOCC was not interested in this information.
Maybe the BOCC had misunderstood the desires of the public? That we want our new government facilities to be.. well, smaller. Smaller than what the government officials imagine for themselves? And less expensive?
So, we’re back at the Tuesday, November 6, Town Council meeting, and Town Manager Andrea Phillips is explaining the numerous reasons why the Town staff had changed direction, and chosen to recommend a smaller, more affordable Town Maintenance facility on the Town’s existing S 5th Street property. The decision was apparently based on 388 pages of engineering and architectural reports, as presented in the Council’s Tuesday packet.
The previous plan, designed by architect Brad Ash looked something like this:
Estimated price: about $8.7 million. Size: about 32,000 square feet of covered space.
I’m not that good at understanding 388 page reports, so some of my numbers might be wrong? But I’m pretty sure of the $8.7 million estimated price.
Architect Courtney King took the programming data developed by Mr. Ash and the various engineers, crunched the numbers with members of the Streets Department and Parks Department, and came up with a proposal that looked something like this:
Estimated price: about $4.6 million. Size: about 29,000 square feet of covered space.
As I look at these two concept drawings, I don’t see a great deal of difference between the two designs, except that Ms. King was able to fit the proposed shop onto 2 acres instead of 5 acres. And maybe she (thoughtfully) added some trees and grass? But both concept drawings show an industrial, functional-looking complex.
As I mentioned, one way to control the cost of a proposed facility is by making it smaller. But considering that Ms. King’s design contains about 28,000 square feet — at an estimated price of $4.6 million — and Mr. Ash’s design contains about 32,000 square feet for about twice the estimated cost…
…Maybe your choice of architects is even more important than the size of your facility? If you are running a government?
Here’s Courtney King, speaking at Tuesday’s Council meeting:
“We talked about some of the buildings being double-sided and being able to drive through them for specific equipment uses. And some of them not. Those are things that have to be hashed out in the design phase. But I think a certain number of garage doors on the outside will help to break up the façade.
“Too many might be too much, in terms of a nice streetscape.”
In other words, yes, this is an industrial building complex, located at the edge of a residential area. But we can still think about aesthetics, and making the complex as attractive as possible. For a much lower price.
Town Manager Andrea Phillips:
“I asked Courtney to work with staff and really take a look at those square-footage needs. Keeping in mind that it’s going to be difficult to plan for 50 years into the future. We’ve been at that site for 40 years. Where are we realistically going to be in 30 to 40 years? And is it something that we can phase, if we need to?
“Can we look at the site and say, if we really need additional storage space for equipment, vehicles, other office space…
“So we really took some time and did some programming…”
Isn’t that the key? To take some time, and do some programming?
And use the best ideas that come forward?