The Seattle Times reports that King County officials are surprised by the ever escalating cost of Brightwater:The Brightwater treatment plant is now expected to cost $1.8 billion -- roughly double what the Metropolitan King County Council was told when it first approved the project. |  |
How about the 4.3 Million in art for a septic plant.
Now that really takes the cake for taxpayer waste, or waste water, whichever you choose.
Let's not forget, in addition to sewage treatment, we'll be able to celebrate weddings on the artfully landscaped (if questionably fragrant) grounds of Brightwater:
Colonel and Mrs. Arthur Wienerbarger
invite you to celebrate
the marriage of their daughter
Patricia Hortense
to
Mr. William Stanley Poindexter
Four o'Clock in the afternoon
Saturday, the 25th of June, 2011
At the BRIGHTWATER SEWAGE TREATMENT CENTER...
Dinner reception to follow on-site (YUM!)
Posted by: Insider on March 31, 2008 06:37 PMSeriously, putting in money to beautify the site and placate the neighbors is worth far more than the number they quote. The delays from court actions by neighbors to prevent wastewater treatment plants from going online are a substantive problem. It's better to address their concerns rather than dealing with the nasty process of takings later on.
But let's drop a wastewater treatment plant in *your* neighborhood, and we'll see what you do!
And of course there are overruns. Construction activity is up, labor and materials are more expensive. If there hadn't been a building boom in the region, there wouldn't be the higher costs.
Posted by: cnb on March 31, 2008 06:51 PMThe art is virtually guaranteed to be bad, after all it is the King Cty. Exec. and Council who ultimately are selecting it.
Posted by: russell garrard on March 31, 2008 07:11 PMWorse, the overruns translate into significant increases in sewer bills for users in two counties. Significant means $1000 to $1500 per year.
It is long past the time to remove Sims and the Council from office. Sadly, the majority of voters are too stupid to realize they are being screwed, much less doin anything about it.
Posted by: Paddy on March 31, 2008 07:37 PMYou suckers crack me up.
We spend an extra billion on very much needed infrastructure and you think the world in coming to an end.
We spend and extra 500 billion on a pointless war in Iraq and ....
Or maybe KBR.
That'll show everybody.
Posted by: Jim on March 31, 2008 08:29 PMMAKE THEM GIVE MORE SNOHOMISH COUNTY COUNCIL idiots! (emphasis added)
Posted by: Mike Jones on March 31, 2008 09:18 PMUp by 900K is Brightwater? The Sound Transit agency takes that much in in tax out of poor peoples' pockets in two years. For nothing.
You all are getting reamed. Brightwater is not in the same zipcode as the real "biggest public works project in King County" and the Seattle Times gets paid to not point that out.
Posted by: knockers on March 31, 2008 09:35 PMLiberal tax happy spend happy regulating happy idiots
Posted by: GS on March 31, 2008 09:41 PM1. Oversight and accountability
2. Does this overrun have anything to do with the shortfall in the county budget and the investment pool investment in subprime mortgages with at least 83 mill in exposure?
So, when this is added to the county shortfall and the subprime mortgage mess is the county is really, really, really shaky financial condition?
Posted by: WVH on March 31, 2008 09:42 PMNow there's some art that befits that place! And it's free!
Posted by: GS on March 31, 2008 09:49 PMJust don't get no better than that!
Posted by: gs on March 31, 2008 09:54 PMMy feeling is we have to look hard at how the money is being spent. What special interests are getting a cut of the money. My nose says follow the money trail. Maybe then we can sue to recover money if it is found to be double the market real cost. Also like to look at the workmanship. Is it up to standards or is it to Substandard workmanship. That will need more repairs in the near future to increase the cost even more.
Efficiency of Government to do the right thing does not exist in the current KC council or Ron Sims. Keeping costs down being a priority or is paying back supporters via juicy contracts.
I have to say Follow the money trail. See where it leads. Or will they call the budget and real expense a secret hiding behind lawyers. Posted by: David Anfinrud on March 31, 2008 11:03 PM
Robert Mak did a show a couple of months back on the investment pool which invested in subprime mortgages. Why? The county is running a deficit. Why? There was the recent story in either the Stranger or Weekly, I can't remember which, about taxi licenses that were supposed to go to campaign donors until the other cabbies made a stink, no pun intended. Then there was the post here recently about some land deal in south King County which was going through, but now not maybe.
Something in the county is fishy, no pun intended.
I think you are right, some one needs to follow the $$$$$$, I guess nowadays, it is better to follow the Euros.
So we get a lifer politician like Ron Sims, who is incompetent. He buys train track to turn into trails, simultaneously pisses away billions on a redundant bus servce, now this....
kudos to mostly lefty Times for running the story
I didn't check; do they mention Sims is a Dem?
Posted by: righton on April 1, 2008 03:58 AMI do think there needs to be a change of venue on the County Council and at the State level. The pendulum needs to swing back.
Unfortunately, when it does swing back there will be nothing except more of the same on the other side.
Come on, Medic, Saltherring and HUH, you need to run for office.
Posted by: swatter on April 1, 2008 08:00 AMCome on, Medic, Saltherring and HUH, you need to run for office.
Geee, thanks buddy. I'm hoping to retire soon and you want to give me a job THAT will kill me. 0-:
The largest single cause of the increase is the 10 year delay in implementing the proposal because of NIMBY delays. Ten years of price increases in all aspects from materials to labor. Indeed, there are design changes that have added to the cost, too. But, had we started building Brightwater ten years ago, it would be done now and much closer to budget, though still over for sure.
Posted by: kmort on April 1, 2008 08:50 AMThe largest single cause of the increase is the 10 year delay in implementing the proposal because of NIMBY delays. Ten years of price increases in all aspects from materials to labor. Indeed, there are design changes that have added to the cost, too. But, had we started building Brightwater ten years ago, it would be done now and much closer to budget, though still over for sure.
Posted by: kmort on April 1, 2008 08:52 AMIf it passes we'll put a booth outside the King County chambers door, outside the legislature in Olympia, and as close to seattle as we can get before the stench overwhelms us.
There should be enough revenue to pay for another Britewater or two from all of that Turd Tolling.
I do do some committees and have been elected to associations. I got 'burned' out on night meetings in the late 80s and early 90s. I started going to them a few years ago again to see if I could stomach them. I fuond I am still burnt out. A few years at three or four per week wore me out. Sorry.
Medic has no excuse, though.
Someone does need to step up that has 'common sense', though. I sometimes think that once people get elected they lose all perspective- like Sound Transit and Brightwater.
Posted by: swatter on April 1, 2008 10:32 AMSimple economics at work...how typical of people on this board to blame the party rather than looking at the actual cause of the problem.
The project approval is the only first action. All that followed is the source of the damage to the public. The project's scope, design, contracting process and award, and contract administration is overseen by Sims and his minions. Moreover, it is debatable that there is any need for Brightwater.
Sims has to go. Voters wake up.
Posted by: Paddy on April 1, 2008 12:14 PM"I would love to see where the overruns are comming from. Look at the original budget and then look at the current spending."
Let me guess. King County planners cooked the books to hide the impacts to reach Sim's targeted budget. Under fire from Maggi Fimia and her alternative plan to save several hundred million dollars for the taxpayers, Sims probably just told his minions to build him a $1 billion cost and ignore anything that would push it higher. Then once Sims got his approvals based on their routine manipulation of studies, hired-gun experts, bogus forecasts, science and misuse of the law, he could start addressing the real impacts after it was too late to stop it.
And since this was a Master Builders backed idea to open up more development, developer-owned Republicans like Chris Vance were certainly on board to push it through the Council.
Oh, and once approved, a few extra bucks thrown here and there - to friends of Ron - would also certainly be career enhancing. Remember, Sims would be named the Master Builders 2005 Economic Development Champion for his Brightwater efforts. Everyone wins, except those of us paying the bills.
Posted by: MJC on April 1, 2008 02:30 PMAnd if you happen to notice that area roads, especially during commute hours, have become increasingly congested over the last 15 years, and that not a single capacity-enhancing improvement whatsoever has been made since the original Redmond Ridge and Trilogy first entered public hearings, you should begin to understand how things are done in Ron Sims' King County. That $800 million cost overrun for the developers' new sewage plant would buy a lot of needed road capacity. And so would the wasted $600 million or so on Ron Sims' insistence on a new treatment plant over using available capacity elsewhere.
BTW- Has anyone considered the impacts on our already-overwhelmed road system when all that new housing is constructed that will be supported by Sims' and the Master Builders' Brightwater?
Posted by: MJC on April 1, 2008 04:29 PMhey--can we get the "community-payback" Tribes to build (ahem; "invest") in one or more of these?
they aren't exactly volunteering i noticed; how about all the xtra sewage from the new Tulalip Hotel? or is that a federal thing?