By Juan Montoya
Not only has the company that was awarded the $5 million contract to construct the Stegman Building Performing Arts Academy on the corner of 11th and Washington proven a nightmare for downtown businesses which have had to endure a closed streets that disrupt their trade, but it has also gobbled up more than a $500,000 in change orders since they started the job.
Alpha Construction of Harlingen is hobbling along.And downtown businesses have tired of complaining to the city administration and commissioners that the closing off of the streets to pedestrian and vehicular traffic has hurt them for months going into years.
For months after they started in 2015, the building was literally gutted and only the shell remained.
And time and time again the company went to the city with change orders totaling more than $500,000. The original contract cost was to be $5,030,600 with a "contingency fund" of $306,400.However, the contractor went through that sum like a hot knife through butter in seven change orders. Since it was part of the "contingency" fund included in the original contract, the change orders did not have to get commission approval.
After having gone through that, the contractor and city officials came back to the commission and get an additional $247,435 for the eighth change order that includes another $100,000 as a "contingency."
With the approval of the last change order, it means that they got and additional $553,835 added to the original contract price of $5,030,600 and that the project will end up costing a total of $5,584,435.
And then someone pointed out – and submitted the photos here – that the project is literally crawling with Harlingen subcontractors.If the taxpayers of Brownsville are footing the bill and putting up with the congestion and negative impact on downtown businesses, shouldn't the city at least require that local subcontractors be hired to keep some of those millions here?
One or two cost overruns could be understood. But this has become a clear pattern of either connivance or incompetency on the city side.
When is the hemorrhaging of the public's money going to stop?
Are "contingency" funds just a round about way to put more money in the
pockets of contractors in cahoots with city staff?
Then, to add insult to injury, unemployed Brownsville residents can only stand by and watch Harlingen companies milk the city at will.
16 comments:
Plus that building will benefit the Harlingen kids, BISD does not have an orchestra program, the majority of clients will come from Harlingen.
Brownsville should be glad it is Harlingen contractors doing the work. Who would you trust in Brownsville? Every Brownsville contractor stands in the shadow of a politician/"consultant" looking for his kick-back, err "consulting" fee. I'd suggest we do what we do best in Browntown; sell them tacos and raspas while they're here.
If you're upset about 5 Millon dollar project where is the outrage for our new overbudget 50 MILLON dollar airport terminal ??? The lack of news coverage on this is scary but not surprising... Just like our soccer complex and Brownsville utility project our grandchildren will be taxed to pay this off while we still have streets built in 1970
Chicken feed compare to the bike trails those are in the millions and NO ONE BENENITS.
let's re-elect all of them again and again
Follow the money trail.
Problem is there are no legit contractors in browntown. They are all corrupt as hell and owned by partners who are politicians. The citizens are suckers.
The money trail goes by Jacaranda and also by Ebony street.
Remember La Casa Del Fraude I mean Nylon. It will take many millions to rebuild that rat nest, someone won the lottery for selling this useless building to the city. Pura pinche rata de dos patas tenemos como lideres.
To: June 19, 2018 at 11:15 AM
LOL I like that and the sad thing here is that it's true...They're taking the tortillas out of our hands.
One of our ex crack city commissioners that ran for mayor wanted to bring the Matamoros Marqueta and the food cart pushers to this city. I'm glad he lost..
Juan its only 500K half a million, not bad so far, hey juan what about the Tanaska power plant? why don't you ask the blue jean mayor about that one? Kind of surprised that no citizen has complanted to the Texas PUC about the extra gauging on our electric bills each month for a power plant from no where, sounds like the port of Brownsville and their international bridge to no where too. MMM Guess who pays for all that? Bingo the Brownsville taxpayer that's who, folks we got to get together and make a complaint to the Texas PUC commission about those inflated rates that have not produced anything but higher monthly electric bills. PUC PUC PUC like PUB PUB PUB.
And where is the money coming from to operate all the programs that the city is planning for the building. Or is it just going to sit vacant.
Bike trails, electric power plants, La casa nylon now this what the heck is going on?
More bike trails and bike lines on already congested downtown streets besides buying worthless buildings downtown, that's what is coming for reelecting city leaders that all they do is waste tax payers monies.
We are spending time and money on this ridiculous venue downtown yet we don't have an Event Center in Brownsville to hold a large number of people. Our Events center is a shame in comparison to the one in McAllen. Esos vatos si
saben gastar el dinero bien gastado. Where are the people going to park when they attend all the classical music and dance activities that are suppose to be held at that place? I guess we can all take our bicycles.
Forget about a dome like the ones they are building up the valley. Que pendejos Bike trails stupid.
Post a Comment