After listening to, and transcribing, McMillin's words, along with contributions from DeMarchi, and others at the table, anyone would have felt that this project has been a mess. At one point, I tried to determine how much the project had cost to date. That's when I went back to your board's sanitized minutes. I printed out every Drainage Report from March 2013, when it appeared discussion of the project was first introduced. I still couldn't figure out how much it had cost to date. I couldn't figure out who had written the specs for such a complex project. I couldn't figure out why your board kept putting more money into the project, without promise that what they were approving would fix the problems of the project once and for all.
I'll start you off where I started. Please excuse the cut, paste, and at times my hand printing. I've done the research and I'm sharing it with you. There are some gaps in months. I don't believe I missed providing the information if it was there. When you notice gaps, it is because there was no Drainage Report, or the project wasn't mentioned in a report. As always, verify for yourself. Go to the WPA website and follow the minutes yourself. Here are the official minutes regarding Drainage and the Wedgefield Drainage Project, from March 2013 through September 2014. COMMENTS WILL FOLLOW IN RED, AT THE END.
COMMENTS:
Part II of this article will be posted by end of day, on Tuesday November 9th. It will contain your board's words. The project will be termed as the Canal Project. The Canal Project will be discussed by McMillin, during the Grounds Report. He will make a motion asking for more money. Why did the name of the project change and the leadership move from DeMarchi to McMillin? We may never know. What we will see during the discussion is that this project appears to be mismanaged, our funds thrown at the mistakes, and it doesn't appear by review of the minutes that real engineering was ever involved. Who wrote the specs? What kind of contract did we have? I doubt that it was performance benchmarked. What was the total cost? We'll hear DeMarchi suggest a contractor who they paid on this project in the past and the grade was wrong, but they'll hire him again to grade now. We'll hear DeMarchi say that he dumped two loads of cement into the project, but we don't know who told him it would work, or how much it would cost. We'll hear McMillin's ridiculous cost estimates and reasons for doing what he suggests we do. If you review the sanitized minutes provided above, I believe we were told this project was completed twice, and we'd be mowing the grass on it by now. Prepare your self for Part II.
