County mayor?

[coppertop]

cowman, I wonder how much of that is cost overruns ?

[cowman]

coppertop: Not sure how much in cost over runs, but have a hard time seeing a tripling as a cost over run?
I suspect they ran out a number they thought they could sell to the citizens and then just keep adding to it? They did the same thing with the county office? Started out at $2 million...ran it up to $6.5 million!
The transfer site was supposed to be finished by Dec. 2006. They started putting up the building two weeks ago and the old boy at the site tells me they will be lucky if they are done by July?
I did the seeding on this site. What they had budgetted for seeding was a joke! Probably slightly half of the actual cost! They insisted on a certain seed blend that cost over $3/lb. when a simple fescue/bluegrass mix would have cost $1.42/lb.! Shortly after seeding they planted $267,000 worth of trees in the mud...thus creating the need to reseed a large portion...not to mention more landscaping! I fully expect to get more for the reseeding than the original seeding! I tried to tell the project manager to wait until the trees were in, but one thing I have learned is you can't tell these guys anything! They don't care about costs and that is okay...I'll take their money!

[cowman]

coppertop:Just to show how inept the management is in some municipalities I give you this example:
This county had rebuilt a road on a very steep hill. They seeded what they could with a hydro seeder but couldn't seed the burrow pit and two laneways, so I got the call! I met the foreman and the engineer and right away I could see they didn't have a clue!
I pointed out with the steep slope their hydro mulch was just going to wash off and that they needed to control the run off/drainage in the ditch. But they knew it all, so don't confuse them with facts! The next year the areas I had seeded and harrowed in were like a carpet...but the hydro seeded area was mostly thistles and dandelions amid the bald spots! There was a four foot channel cut down the ditch right into a farmers field! Their solution was to dump about ten loads of black dirt into the chasm! Next year...the same thing! Finally they laid some netting down on the slopes and filled the crack with rocks! It is still a real mess five years later...nothing like those "professionals" who know everything!

[coppertop]

One thing that I have seen in this municipality over the years is the lack of really working the roads when they are graded. We had a graderman who used to spend a lot of time on the road I live on, it's the old original highway, a lot of corduroy still under it. He would work out the pot holes and get it in excellent condition. In 1992 a new council was elected and the direction to all departments was to cut their budgets by 20%. Of course the grading was easy to cut, spend less time, use less graderblades etc., and it looked like the department was extremely efficient.

When I was elected, I questioned the road maintenance, as did some other councillors. We were told it was an administration decision, and the grading done was adequate. In the mean time citizens drive over washboard, pot holes etc. All for the sake of efficiency.

One of the current council members told me that he had started getting calls about a road being built through the bush to provide access to someone's new acreage. Those roads used to be put on a road request list and council would review it annually, with public works having the final decision on priority. Now, it seems that the current administration just does these roads and the area councillor finds out later. I would suspect that much of the issues you have with seeding, transfer station etc. are the result of decisions made by administration. Council's role is to approve the budget, then turn it over to administration, but I feel that sometimes those who are in an administrative role could use a crash course in common sense.

[cowman]

coppertop: I agree with you on this one! Quite often(usually?) it is an inept manager!...we seem to have a lot of them down here!
Unfortunately...the buck has to stop somewhere...and it is the councillor?
Personally I think the infrastructure is the most important thing, but I realize others might think differently? Just lately the county is trying to float the idea of a "County Recreational facility"...I shudder at what this little dream might cost us!

[coppertop]

cowman, not only the initial cost, but the ongoing maintenance and operating costs of huge recreation facilities are astronomical. The fact is that residents who live close to the facility get the most out of these facilities but in counties like Red Deer, the outlying areas usually use facilities in the nearest urban municipality, but their tax dollars go to build and operate the huge structures.

In our community the people wanting facilities built, used the adage that there was NOTHING for the youth to do unless millions of dollars were spent on state of the art facilities.. Our community built a huge facility, the county and ag society etc. put millions into the construction cost and ongoing operation costs, but it seems as though there are many more of our youth in some sort of crisis as each year goes by. I feel that recreation has got to be within the reach of all families, and once the huge facilities are built either the municipal taxpayer has to subsidize useage or the costs are passed down to the user, and in many cases this puts taking advantage of what the facility has to offer out of reach of families living on lower or fixed incomes.