[Winona Online Democracy]
I recently read that there was an out of court settlement either between the
county and the architect and/or another contractor. One of the issues
included the fact that the company that manufactured the chairs went out of
business and therefore they could not be returned.
I was determined to find what I'd read and here it is from the Daily News:
"The county was billed $516 for each chair and could have lost up to $60,000
on the deal, but eventually reached a settlement with the architect and the
seller, Twin Cities-based General Office Products, to pay $135 for each.
It now plans to sell the lot of chairs for about $15,000, or around $100
each."
It reminds me of a whole bunch of home building and renovating stories about
things not going as planned and costing the homeowner money. I can't
imagine that a huge project like our courthouse renovation wouldn't have
those same kinds of stories attached. I'm glad that there was a settlement
that didn't leave us with the whole bill for the overpriced and mismatched
chairs. I'm sure there was a party involved that would have liked our County
to pay 100% for the mistake!
Thanks to Bob Reinert and others for doing your best to look out for our
interests!
Kathy Seifert
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Sebo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "john finn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "'E Democracy'" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 7:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Winona] chairs
[Winona Online Democracy]
I really thought that the county got some kind of recompense for the chair
event from the architect or a contractor, but I don't recall for sure.
What I'd like to point out is John's remarkable comment about these
events.
Having not seen the chairs in question, I don't have an opinion on
whether
they seriously clashed with the rest of the courthouse furnishings. But
I'm
glad that the building was restored and that a professional architect was
hired to oversee things even if he (or someone else?) botched that aspect
of
the project.
Mr. Finn saw a mistake made when working towards an honorable goal. He
was
glad the goal was worked towards despite the misstep.
I think we all need to adopt a similar attitude towards many of our
disagreements. We forget that we fundamentally do agree about some
things,
e.g. quality education is good. I am among those who is too willing to
focus on my own perceptions of the shortcomings of others' positions,
rather
than fostering a civilized and productive discussion.
By, the by, John also wrote:
Speaking of Courthouse seating: Has anyone noticed that there's no park
benches located on the newly landscaped lawns? ( There is a picnic table
back behind the air conditioning shed that might be the smokers lounge. )
This could be deliberate rather than an oversight in order to discourage
vagrants from loitering there. Or maybe not having outdoor benches is
more
historically accurate. I suspect that Winona's collective memory of the
failed Third Street pedestrian mall isn't compatible with the notion that
anyone would want to spend any idle time outdoors in the downtown area.
There is a stone slab at the Courthouse Annex entrance that is meant to
be
a
bench. And it provides a view of the Courthouse. Other than that, there's
nothing in the vicinity of the Courthouse that provides the kind of
overall
ambience that our "crown jewel" of historical buildings needs to fulfill
its
potential as a tourist attraction.
Hear, hear...we need to think more of our historic downtown as one place,
not a series of isolated locations with space in between. Of course
landscaping et al costs money, too, and requires ongoing maintenance. If
we
get the half-cent sales tax passed and move 90% of the tracks out of the
levee area that would help, too.
Bob Sebo
Winona
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