In speaking with several people today, there seems to be a growing undercurrent that the Grand Tour of Morrisville Educational Facilities on Saturday is not going to be a real tour in the sense of fact finding and openness that today's Mitchell Report was for Major League Baseball. Instead, it's going to be a pre-bidathon for cronies to come in and get work because their friends are on the board now. I guess it's easy to hold a sham walkabout with your eyes closed and your mind equally shut.
It's a fine line to tread. Do you support the local contractor, who may have a vested interest in the job at his child's school (and need the work, too), or do you go with the larger contractor who is less local but big enough to handle the larger jobs? I know plenty of good, hard working local tradesmen (and women) who could, and should, have a fair share of work, whether it's a new K-12 building or restoring the three current buildings. I also know that there's a reason big contractors win big bids; they have the bandwidth to handle them. Take a look at the Trenton-Morrisville bridge project: there are plenty of local guys who do work on it, but there are some items where the resources of a larger company are needed.
I'm not very reassured by the actions of this new board only a week into the game. Dissenters are shut out; rational action is being shelved in favor of blind reaction; the innate hatred and bigotry that was only thinly veiled by the board candidates is being eroded away through the repeated actions of the board members.
Don't kid yourselves that this is just about the new school; it's about responsible stewardship. If you support the NSNs and what they are doing, then you are endorsing them and their activities, lock, stock, and barrel. Imagine if you were the one shut out at work because a new boss came in; imagine that your work is dismissed simply because you're one of the "old crew"; further imagine that you're held in complete contempt by the new boss. Yeah--I can hear you now "They deserved it!" "They tried to rob us in our taxes!" "We're just getting back what's ours!" That's fine. Believe that. And when it happens to you directly instead of you just watching someone else get it while you're on the sidelines of life, I will gladly provide the cheese to go with your whine. But that's all you'll get from me.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
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Does anyone really need to ask that question? Of course it's a sham. The problems in the facilities are all well documented by several groups of professionals. However, the "local experts" know better, so they're going to show us that all we need is a little paint and a boiler and it will be sunny days again. Sooner or later there will be a catastrophic failure in one of these buildings and someone will be injured. I hope these folks realize that they will likely be held liable for their negligence.
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