The nine component school districts have awarded the bonding for borrowing more than is now required to build their new 192,000-square-foot BOCES facility. This is about 54 percent bigger than our existing BOCES, yet was designed to handle approximately the same number of students as the old facility.
All of these nine school districts opted to go out and bond for “The maximum estimated cost of the new campus of $42,195,000.” They did however, leave some wiggle room by inserting a clause in their “Summary Notice of Bond Sale.” At least Auburn did.
One has to wonder why they did that because on April 4, BOCES awarded the winning contracts to build this huge and expensive facility on 44 acres for approximately $36.4 million which is $5.8 million (13.74 percent) less than the $42.2 million we approved in our respective school budgets.
BOCES had actually awarded these contracts approximately a month before we went to vote on our school budgets, so why didn't these nine districts include this lesser amount in their budgets before we went to the polls? This seems to have a slight stench to it, doesn't it?
Why did all these nine districts go out and bond for the maximum via the original $42.2 million estimate and not the actual $36.4 million via the awarded contracts? More stench.
This lower amount would save the Auburn school district approximately $2.8 million in principal and interest.
According to published reports, all of these nine school districts were to “give BOCES their assigned amount by June 20.” If you did, demand your refunds immediately before your overage leaks through BOCES' porous hands.
BOCES construction began on April 17. “Things are on schedule. There have been no problems or delays so far,” according to David T. Boyle, BOCES assistant superintendent for finance and management services.
But here is the ho-hum crasher: On June 4, Mr. Boyle said “If we end up spending less than the $42.2 million, we can look at some bid alternatives.” Now what do you suppose he meant by “bid alternatives” anyway?
Translated: it appears that Boyle and Gary Gilchrist, BOCES district superintendent, plan to add all kinds of “bid alternative enhancements” via the “changes clause” of the various contracts and spend the additional $5.8 million, whether the additional stuff is needed or not.
Hey, the nine component districts have authorization to borrow the additional $5.8 million, so why not spend it, right? Wrong!
BOCES hired an on-site project manager for $375,000 to honcho the construction phase but who's watching how our 'bid alternative changes' dollars are spent? Where are the checks and balances? Or the oversight organizations?
Stand by Auburn - and you other eight districts - for huge over-runs at “BOCES City.”
Hey, it's not their money.
It's your money.
Bill Balyszak's column appears each Monday in The Citizen
One has to wonder why they did that because on April 4, BOCES awarded the winning contracts to build this huge and expensive facility on 44 acres for approximately $36.4 million which is $5.8 million (13.74 percent) less than the $42.2 million we approved in our respective school budgets.
BOCES had actually awarded these contracts approximately a month before we went to vote on our school budgets, so why didn't these nine districts include this lesser amount in their budgets before we went to the polls? This seems to have a slight stench to it, doesn't it?
Why did all these nine districts go out and bond for the maximum via the original $42.2 million estimate and not the actual $36.4 million via the awarded contracts? More stench.
This lower amount would save the Auburn school district approximately $2.8 million in principal and interest.
According to published reports, all of these nine school districts were to “give BOCES their assigned amount by June 20.” If you did, demand your refunds immediately before your overage leaks through BOCES' porous hands.
BOCES construction began on April 17. “Things are on schedule. There have been no problems or delays so far,” according to David T. Boyle, BOCES assistant superintendent for finance and management services.
But here is the ho-hum crasher: On June 4, Mr. Boyle said “If we end up spending less than the $42.2 million, we can look at some bid alternatives.” Now what do you suppose he meant by “bid alternatives” anyway?
Translated: it appears that Boyle and Gary Gilchrist, BOCES district superintendent, plan to add all kinds of “bid alternative enhancements” via the “changes clause” of the various contracts and spend the additional $5.8 million, whether the additional stuff is needed or not.
Hey, the nine component districts have authorization to borrow the additional $5.8 million, so why not spend it, right? Wrong!
BOCES hired an on-site project manager for $375,000 to honcho the construction phase but who's watching how our 'bid alternative changes' dollars are spent? Where are the checks and balances? Or the oversight organizations?
Stand by Auburn - and you other eight districts - for huge over-runs at “BOCES City.”
Hey, it's not their money.
It's your money.
Bill Balyszak's column appears each Monday in The Citizen
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