Oopsie # 4 (Courtesy of "Aleventz")
Disappearing jack
... leads to non existent streets?
A Bisbee antidote, anecdote, artichoke; your choice.
Mr. Russ McConnell announced at a City Council meeting in or about July
of 2006 that Arizona Street would be paved shortly. Councilman Maynard
Kreps stated that Bisbee had the $400,000 in the budget so this
paving would be a first order priority.
After a few weeks of hearing nothing more, I called Public Works to
find out when the ads for invitation to bid would be published. I was
told that they would appear the next Thursday (8-17-06) in the Observer
and that the bidding close date would be 9-1-06. When the Thursday
Observer was missing the ad, I called Public Works to be told that KE
& G wasn’t finished with their works and that the schedule
was delayed until they were finished.
A subsequent call to KE&G revealed that they had been finished
about 2 weeks earlier and were awaiting the County’s road prep
work before they could start the paving. I asked if the project would
be put out to bid and the person abruptly corrected himself saying that
they would probably do the work after the bidding process was
completed.
I then called Public Works to relate the discrepancies between what
they told me and what I was told by KE&G. After an embarrassed
pause their receptionist put me on line with Jeff Schwartz.
Jeff Schwartz said that the project was being held up because of lack
of funds; they were missing about $100K to finish the job that would
take about 22,000 sq yds of paving cap at 2” thick on top of the
county constructed road bed. As soon as they found the money they would
publish invitations for bidding.
My questions are:
1. Why did Maynard Kreps prematurely announce the availability of funds
when it wasn’t so? Did the missing $100,000 fund another's
agenda?
2. Will a 2" capping be robust enough to withstand the illegal 12
wheeler heavy truck traffic hauling copper cathode from Naco to Hyway
80 via the Warren by-pass that destroyed Arizona St shortly after Mayor
Lefty’s wonderful new paving? All of the other recently paved
streets at that time, including Bisbee Rd still looked great after 5
years while Arizona St. looked little better than it does now.
3. Are we relying on Russ McConnell’s paving design expertise to
guide us in this large capital outlay that may be at risk in a couple
of years? How about hiring a paving engineer to design the road bed and
capping that will withstand the uncontrollable abuse which Arizona St
will undoubtedly receive.
4. Will Arizona St be at risk of becoming another feeding-trough
albatross like Bisbee’s other under-engineered and poorly planned
infrastructure renewal projects?
5. Will Bisbee’s City government demand an open bidding process
for the paving project so that the best and least costly products and
services are delivered? Or will we rely on a wink, a nod, a handshake,
and no paper work like what seemed to have happened on the aborted
Minder Ave extension?
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