A small group of Archuleta County activists have formed a committee to explore resiliency. Referring to themselves as ‘Resilient Archuleta’, they’ve organized a couple of public meetings to discuss ways in which Archuleta County could be better prepared for natural and economic disasters. The next meeting will take place at the County Fairgrounds Extension Building on Wednesday, June 26 from 6-8pm. At that meeting, Archuleta County Emergency Operations Center Director Mike Le Roux will discuss his team’s work and responsibilities.
Although some American communities have suffered greatly from the unusually generous precipitation we’ve had so far this year, Archuleta County has thus far escaped serious economic damage… from the weather…
We do, however, seem to be suffering economic damage on other fronts. We’re in the midst of a housing crisis, for example. And we’re experiencing a serious shortage of qualified employees in almost every sector of the local economy. While these crises continue to unfold, we have a natural disaster simultaneously taking place at the Archuleta County Administration Building.
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners were scheduled to hold a special meeting on Thursday morning, June 13 to discuss their expensive County Jail project. I did not attend that meeting, so I haven’t yet heard if anything meaningful was decided. (My doctor has advised me to avoid stress, and listening to our current County commissioners discuss millions of dollars in long-term, taxpayer-funded debt can indeed be a cause of stress.)
A couple of years ago — in January 2017, to be exact — the team of Reilly Johnson Architects and Reynolds Ash + Associates estimated the cost of a new County jail at around $7.6 million. (Not including architect fees — “soft costs” — and site work.)
A couple of months earlier, the price had been officially estimated by the County at $5.7 million.
In preparation for yesterday’s special meeting, Archuleta County Finance Director Larry Walton put together a little report, which read, in part:
On March 5th, 2019, the Commissioners approved a proposal from Nunn Construction to serve as Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) for the Pre-construction Service portion of the project. Today, they are coming before you to present their Guaranteed Maximum Price Proposal for this project.
Fiscal Impact
At the time of this writing, no GMP proposal has been presented to staff for advance review. However, during a BoCC work session on June 11, 2019, representatives from Nunn Construction indicated their GMP proposal would total about $14,395,000. This is considerably higher than originally estimated.
Nunn Construction pointed out that the County’s original estimate was about two years old, and that inflation in the construction industry has been running approximately 6% per year during the last two years. It was also noted that sub-contractors in the region are very busy and they are having difficulty obtaining bids for this relatively remote, rural location.
We must concur that an original estimate from the architects — from two years ago — is a bit lower than the current estimate. Those estimates, as shown above, were much closer to $8 million than to $14 million.
Mr. Walton continued in his June 13 summary report:
Assuming the GMP presented today is $14,395,000, total project costs will be:
In addition to the above project costs, the architect on the job [Brad Ash?] was apparently recommending that the County allocate “an additional contingency of 3-5% of construction costs. ($431,850 to $719,750).” This would put the potential cost of the project in the $15.8 million to $16 million range.
Mr. Walton was recommending a contingency of 3%.
I find this interesting, considering that Nunn Construction supposedly presenting a “Guaranteed Maximum Price.” Perhaps “guaranteed” doesn’t mean what it used to mean.
At any rate, the big, exciting County Jail project is turning out to cost twice what it was estimated to cost in 2017. I don’t know how our Daily Post readers feel about this, but if I were planning a new home for my family, and the construction bids came in at twice my original budget, I would consider reducing the size of the house.
We should not expect the current BOCC to do anything of the sort, however. They have shown themselves to be basically incompetent as stewards of the taxpayers’ money.
Mr. Walton’s report concluded:
If the Commissioners do not approve the GMP proposal submitted today, the project will have to be put out to bid a second time, which would likely result in a significant delay in the project, likely to end up being several months, at a cost to the County of at least $50,000+/per month.
Mr. Walton’s report did not explain in what sense it would cost the County “$50,000+/per month” if the BOCC decided to reconsider this whole expensive proposition.
As I mentioned, I did not attend the special BOCC meeting on Thursday morning, June 13. For some odd reason, I am reminded this morning of the character ‘Churchy LaFemme’ in the well-loved cartoon strip — Pogo — written and drawn by Walt Kelly back in the 1950s and ’60s. Churchy greatly feared the arrival of Friday the 13th each month, especially when it actually fell on a Friday. But Churchy was likewise concerned, even if Friday the 13th came on a Wednesday or Thursday.
I had an additional reason for skipping the special BOCC meeting on June 13.
Donuts.
Pagosa Peak Open School — the first public, tuition-free charter school authorized by the Archuleta School District — is finishing up its second school year this summer (the school runs on a year-round calendar) and will be starting its third year under a new School Director, Angela Reali Crossland. Ms. Crossland hosted a public “Donuts with the Director” event on the morning of June 13, where she introduced her extensive new “Work Plan” for the 2019-2020 school year.
The morning meeting was held in the school’s auditorium in the Parelli Building and was reasonably well attended — compared to, say, a typical BOCC special meeting. It resulted in a significant ‘give-and-take’ conversation between Ms. Crossland and the dozen interested parents who took the time to attend. Several of the parents expressed concerns about certain aspects of the school culture and about academic learning, and Ms. Crossland did her best to explain how the new PPOS Work Plan might address those concerns during the coming school year.
Thinking back on the respectful but vigorous conversation I heard at the “Donuts with the Director” gathering, I am struck by the curious connection — and the obvious dissimilarity — between Pagosa Peak Open School, now completing its second school year, and the proposed multi-million-dollar Fred Harman Law Enforcement Center which I assume was discussed at the County Administration Building that same morning.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.