---Miller Time

 

Way back in the year 2000, the Ludington City Manager at the time, Jim Miller, decided to paint the insides and the outsides of the cities two water towers.  He arranged a contract with MK Painting Inc., of Lincoln Park, and was granted permission to do so by the council, two members who still serve to this day.  To do the Gaylord Street water tower, originally built in 1933, it cost the city $146,200 (including the repair of 100 linear feet of flashing on the outside of the tank bowl).  The Danaher Street tower, originally built in 1961 which also held 500,000 gallons of water took about the same amount.  The project went from May 10 to July 1, 2000.

 http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=6831
 http://www.ludingtondailynews.com/news.php?story_id=6376

 

---Smoke (and Mirrors) on the Water (tower)


Ten years later, the established City Manager, John Shay, decides to paint these towers once again.  Unlike the year 2000, the economy is not looking too good; home sales and values now are going down, unlike the trend in 2000-- this means less revenue for the city now and in coming years, and a need to be fiscally frugal.  The condition of the previous paint job is not looking too bad.  One needs to consider his decision may be due to the recent painting of the Scottville and PM watertowers and perhaps this effort is due to 'keeping up with the Joneses'.

Danaher' water tower, untouched as yet

 

A little research shows that steel-based water towers are recommended to be painted every 20 to 30 years, and it is not uncommon for some areas to go beyond that, particularly for inconspicuous ones, like Ludington's are (except for home football games).

http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/pickerington/stories/2010/...

 

So maybe this project is about 10 to 20 years before its time-- perhaps Mr. Shay found a great deal-- after all, many businesses are offering discounts to encourage this sort of thing.  Considering that the Gaylord water tower cost $146,200 to paint back in 2000, we need to consider inflation.  The inflation rate between 1-2000 and 1-2010 has been 28.37% (http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Calculators/Inflat...).  The $146,200 in 2010 dollars is thus $187,676.  So to get an equivalent of Jim Miller's deal (which occurred in a period where the businesses did not have to offer deals) John Shay should be expected to spend this amount or less on the Gaylord water tower.

 

City Council Boldly Follows Blindly

 

At the 12-21-09 City Council Meeting John Shay said:  "... the proposed contract with Utility Service Maintenance would have the City spending $151,000 a year on the maintenance of the two water towers (for 10 years).  The Gaylord Avenue tank would be a complete gut job, completely stripping the paint of the inside and outside and then repainting it, whereas on the Danaher Street tower, the company would complete the overlay on the outside only."  No competitive deals were publicly considered.  And this $1.5 million proposal was passed unanimously by the council as Ordinance 208-09, which has not been amended since.

 

As the Danaher tower only requires external painting and the company's maintenance package is effectively $30,000/year for 10 years (a fairly simple process which could more cheaply be done by city water employees with existing equipment), $1.2 million is used for painting, with about 2/3 of the job being done to Gaylord's tower.  Thus the cost for painting the interior and exterior of the Gaylord tower is around $800,000!  This is more than $600,000 greater than the Gaylord tower was painted back in 2000 adjusted for inflation--  Well over four times as much for the same work!!!

 

WTF?! (Water Tower Fraud?!)

 

For $1.5 million, a 500,000 gallon water tower can be built which won't require paint until 25 years (http://www.northcoastjournal.com/022405/news0224.html) The Smiley water tower down in Fruitport is being repainted a brilliant yellow this year for the low price of $200,000 (http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2010/06/smiley_face_wa...).  Other towers of similar size are being painted for even less.  The Gaylord tower was scheduled to be done in July-- two months later, they are still 'busy' at it.

Gaylord water tower, Sept. 14,2010


John Shay gutted proven programs and fired a few employees to help fund this project-- which shouldn't have even be considered for at least another ten years-- for a cost which should have been prohibitive.  Most of the extra money the City planned to make by hiking water rates 20% and sewage rates 8% on John Q. Public will go for the burden of paying for this. When added to the questionable restructuring of the city marina which cost $830,000, the City Manager spent $2.3 million this year in two costly projects which does not help one iota to the problems this community actually faces right now, or in the future.

 

The question one must ask is whether he is so incompetent as a City Manager that he willfully wastes our hard-earned tax dollars on such overpriced trivia while ignoring our community's infrastructure and true needs or is he competently managing over unethical practices where around $1 million of public monies is finding its way into someones' pockets without being earned legitimately.
  

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Just to let you know, Monday's 11-22-10 LDN reported that the budget for 2011 includes $206,300 for painting the Danaher water tower, not mentioning it was part of the $1.5 million tag paid out over the next ten years. More graft? If this is separate, then you will have to adjust the $800,000 cost for just painting the Gaylord tower upward to $1.2 million.
Agreed Charlemag.

Thanks for the heads up Edie. There is a chance that this is just the annual payment scheduled from the contract, but it does seem to be mentioned separate, and the paper has no further mention for the next two years. Definitely need to check that out when the minutes become available.

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