{"id":1163,"date":"2012-01-22T19:36:01","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T00:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/commission-voted-for-12849705-road-cost-overrun-without-discussion-lcc-2012-jan-10.html"},"modified":"2012-01-22T19:36:01","modified_gmt":"2012-01-23T00:36:01","slug":"commission-voted-for-12849705-road-cost-overrun-without-discussion-lcc-2012-jan-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/commission-voted-for-12849705-road-cost-overrun-without-discussion-lcc-2012-jan-10.html","title":{"rendered":"Commission voted for $128,497.05 road cost overrun without discussion @ LCC 2012 Jan 10"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KZ1R_XDM2Io\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/i4.ytimg.com\/vi\/KZ1R_XDM2Io\/default.jpg\"><\/a>\nDiscrepancy? What discrepancy?\n<p>\nStaff presented the\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/01\/ankle-monitoring-system-budget-adjustment-lowndes-county-commission-9-10-january-2012-.html\">\nagenda item<\/a>\n&#8220;7.b. Entrance Gate at Davidson and Roberts Roads&#8221;:\n<blockquote>\nLowndes County received\na $2M grant from the Federal Highway Administration\nfor construction of a new Moody AFB entrance gate,\nthe gate to be located located at the intersection of\nDavidson and Roberts Roads.\n$477,991 of this money has already been taken for the\nrailroad crossing improvements,\nleaving a balance of $1.52 million.\nThe low bid is from Scruggs Company, $1,648,497.05.\n<\/blockquote>\nWait, what?\nThe low bid is for more than the funds available?\nSurely somebody will explain that?\n<p>\nNope, no discussion. Instead, Commissioner Crawford Powell said:\n<blockquote>\nI&#8217;ll make a motion we approve the bid as presented by staff.\n<\/blockquote>\nCommissioner Evans seconded, and they all voted for it.\nHey, what $128,497.05 discrepancy?\n<p>\nHere&#8217;s\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KZ1R_XDM2Io\">\nPart 1 of 2:<\/a>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KZ1R_XDM2Io\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<br>\n<small>\nCommission voted for $128,497.05 road cost overrun without discussion @ LCC 2012 Jan 10 Part 1 of 2:\n<br>\nRegular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),\n<br>\nValdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 January 2012.\n<br>\nVideos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.\n<\/small>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dPlRDk-cMfY\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\"   src=\"http:\/\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/dPlRDk-cMfY\/default.jpg\"><\/a>\nIf we look at the previous morning&#8217;s work session (9 January 2012),\nwe do find a bit more information.\nThe grant was presented as involving both the Federal Highway Administration\nand Homeland Security, and:\n<blockquote>\nMr. Fletcher has additional information.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<!--more-->\nTwo bids were received, from Scruggs and Reames, both for more than that amount.\nThe county had been renegotiating (!) with only Scruggs (!!)\nabout reducing costs.\nThat involved removing the concrete median and other concrete work.\nScruggs&#8217; new price would be $1,447,955.73, according to\nCounty Engineer Mike Fletcher.\nThat leaves the county $34,987.70 short. Mike Fletcher had spoken\nwith the railroad about reducing their estimate and had a site visit planned.\n<p>\nCommissioner Joyce Evans asked why not rebid if the price had changed.\nFletcher said GDOT said the Commission would have to approve the Scruggs\nbid as-is in order to do &#8220;value renegotiation&#8221;.\nFletcher also said they had not &#8220;damaged the integrity of the project&#8221;\nby removing much of the concrete,\nwhich is a very interesting point to remember for future county road projects.\n<p>\nCounty Manager Joe Pritchard asked what would happen if the County\nput it out for bids again.\nFletcher said that would delay the project probably 45-60 days\nbecause it would have to be advertised for 30 days.\nHe didn&#8217;t say why that would be a problem.\n<p>\nCommissioner Crawford Powell asked whether approving the original bid would\ncommit the county to paying that amount.\nFletcher said no, the contract with Scruggs would have the new amount.\nPowell said as long as approval was\n&#8220;contingent upon final contract approval&#8221; he was OK with that.\n<p>\nYet when Commissioner Powell made the motion the next evening,\nhe said nothing about\n&#8220;contingent upon final contract approval&#8221;.\nAnd still nobody explained why waiting 45-60 days would be a problem.\nOr why the County was renegotiating with only one of the bidders.\n<p>\nIt is quite interesting to know that removing much of the concrete work,\nincluding a concrete median,\nhad not &#8220;damaged the integrity of the project&#8221;.\nSo the county greatly overpaid for four-laning Bemiss Road with its\nconcrete median.\nAnd any future county road project with a concrete median might well\nbe considered overpaying.\n<p>\nHere&#8217;s\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dPlRDk-cMfY\">\nPart 2 of 2:<\/a>\n<p align=\"center\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dPlRDk-cMfY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<br>\n<small>\nCommission voted for $128,497.05 road cost overrun without discussion @ LCC 2012 Jan 10 Part 2 of 2:\n<br>\nWork Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),\n<br>\nValdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 9 January 2012.\n<br>\nVideos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.\n<\/small>\n<p>\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Discrepancy? What discrepancy? Staff presented the agenda item &#8220;7.b. Entrance Gate at Davidson and Roberts Roads&#8221;: Lowndes County received a $2M grant from the Federal Highway Administration for construction of a new Moody AFB entrance gate, the gate to be located located at the intersection of Davidson and Roberts Roads. $477,991 of this money has [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,70,809,2,3166,822,88,570,571,21,3,449],"tags":[3184,3177,3176,635,28,3010,3182,8728,3178,3159,8805,8701,609,10,8702,91,12,7,8734,3181,3175,8784,380,3180,3183,4,816,3179,60,8700,8767,6],"class_list":["post-1163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-ethics","category-gdot","category-government","category-lcc-2012-january-9","category-lcc-2012-january-10","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-military","category-moody-afb","category-planning","category-transparency","category-transportation","tag-10-january-2012","tag-afb","tag-air-force-base","tag-concrete","tag-cost","tag-dhs","tag-discrepancy","tag-ethics","tag-federal-highway-administration","tag-gate","tag-gdot","tag-georgia","tag-grant","tag-gretchen-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-lcc","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-median","tag-moody","tag-moody-afb","tag-overrun","tag-reames","tag-rebid","tag-regular-session","tag-road","tag-scruggs","tag-tax","tag-transparency","tag-transportation","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-iL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}