"Once In A Lifetime Deal"

The Official Unofficial Minutes of the WL Infrastructure Subcommittee of the Entrance Advisory Group Committee
Jan 20

Thus describes Committee Chair Jim Miller, as he reflects on the EAGC project.  Citing the end result will "be there forever" he opined the current projected costs were closer to $300,000 than the original "$500,000 to $600,000 range" in the beginning.  Regarding design costs ($40,000) "some would say is extraordinarily high" he offered it was a "volunteer project", the bidding process was "interesting" and it took three rounds of bids.

The next step is to get the design team together to choose rock facing, with a possible full EAGC meeting prior to the March BOA with recommendation for the BOA in March.

Then the Curve Ball.

Alderman Finn, from the peanut gallery, asked if there could be questions/comments from the public.  At this point what could they do...say no to an alderman?  Basically her question was...what about Barry and Eastside?  Why wasn't it part of the first phase?  Plenty of discussion followed.  The basic response was when the project started it was assumed Barry would not be complete as construction was ready to go.  That was over three years ago.  Even though the project dragged on and Barry finally got untracked the original plan was not changed to include the latest round of RFP which did not bid out the Barry/Eastside site.  Too bad because now, if they decide to include Barry/Eastside, they need design and a bid, in all likelihood.

So, the Infrastructure Sub is left to scramble with the issue of adding Barry/Eastside to the first phase.  Likelihood is, when the full EAGC is convened, there will be an A or B choice, one with BE and one without in the first phase.  March BOA could still be done, my bet it will be April.