August 19th, 2019 by WCBC Radio
The Cumberland Mayor and City Council last week approved a change order for engineering costs for the Baltimore Street Town Center Project. The project includes replacing underground utility lines and reinstalling Baltimore Street through the downtown pedestrian mall. The engineering services, provided by the EADS Group, saw an expansion in their scope of work increasing their bill $311,450 to a total of $626,246. The total cost of the Baltimore Street project is now estimated at $9 million, which includes a new cosmetic renovation of the site. City Council member Laurie Marchini said the media should be cautious when using the $9 million number- noting that it may not require that amount– and she wouldn’t want to see such high estimates sour the public on the project…
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August 19, 2019 at 6:05 am, mac said:
Council member Marchini is correct to worry about the public souring on the project. Not one shovel of dirt has been moved, and will not until at least next year, and the costs have almost doubled already.
I’m going to go out on a limb and promise you that the costs will go up again, and again.
Don’t forget also that the cosmetic renovation work doesn’t include “value engineering”, which will raise costs again.
The EADS Group costs, alone, have risen not 10%, or 30%, but have doubled, DOUBLED! How can they be trusted with this cost estimate as they seem to be pulling numbers out of a hat.
August 19, 2019 at 11:14 am, j.r. lepley said:
what a total waste of the taxpayer s money!out here on Winifred road they cant take care of a water I wonder how much of the citie s money I can get going that rouute drainage problem that been going on for years ,they say they did nt put the drain pipe in ,,that was 60 year s ago,they don’t know what they did 2 weeks ago,i guess I m going to claim discrimination,they took care of the people down the road and the heck with the 2 house s up the road! I wonder how much of the citie s money I can get going that route??
August 19, 2019 at 1:02 pm, mac said:
> Well said j r, well, said.
August 20, 2019 at 5:17 am, Mark said:
And as long as we elect fools like we have, we’ll keep throwing away millions of OUR tax dollars while Cumberland continues to decline into a 3rd World ghetto. Maybe the new PR guys can put lip stick on this pig!(for a FEW million of course!)