WECRD selects contractor to build facility

Approved a 4.2 million contract but yet only have 3.6 in hand despite saying repeatedly they will not build until all funds are acquired. Even with an additional $794k in cut backs they still cannot built this in a debt free status. No furniture, no lockers no paved parking, side walks, or curbs. Not to mention no water protection despite being in a flood zone.

Remember folks, "It's what the community wants". What funds will be used to furnish/operate said building? Who will pay to join this as they will need 700 paying members?

Still want this Mountain Home?

I DON'T!

If only the previous directors hadn't give a couple million to their cronies, there would be plenty of money. Hopefully the petition will stay viable to dissolve this district.

Great another empty shell of a building. I don't know about others in the community but that is not what this taxpayer wants. Thanks WECRD, you get to say you built a building that we get to pay for many years.

How is it that a contractor from out of town was selected. Did none of the local contractors submit a bid? Were local contractors invited/encouraged to submit a bid? I personally find the selection totally inappropriate.

Not to worry Al, I'm sure locals will be sub-contracted to get a large piece of this pie.

I don't see any issues with taking a "non local" bid, it went to the Treasure Valley for the school roof repair as well. It is obvious what happened, the movement to dissolve the WECRD and cancel the YMCA was gaining momentum, and then due to an "unfortunate miscommunication" the movement got pushed back to a 2016 vote. So knowing the clock was running, this project hit warp speed to break ground before that vote. From the get go, the plan was to hold off building until it could be done debt free and that promise suddenly evaporated due to a sudden sense of urgency. From what I can tell, the capital campaign raised very little outside of the businesses that put matching money up. So the project is already in debt when it wasn't supposed to be. If the plan was to award the project to a local contractor no matter what, you may as well give a blank check knowing outside bids will not be an issue. If this thing is under funded to begin with, and the public voted with their dollars when it came to passing on the opportunity to contribute in the capital campaign (which simply means taxes will be going up to fill that gap), it seems like the most responsible thing to do is put it out for an open bid and award it the most competitive bid. I highly doubt the local folks weren't given the opportunity to offer a competitive bid, and I highly doubt the locals would have been shut out if they offered the best bid. I am not saying the locals are out to take advantage, but if bids are going to Boise there may be a good reason for it.

Also keep in mind that I am just as critical towards the WECRD as most, but the contract situation seemed to be a no win situation. If it ends up going outside of Mountain Home then they get blasted for giving the work to an out of towner. If the work stays local, then they get blasted for doing a buddy a solid and keeping the shifty 50 happy with a shady deal. The bottom line is that they deserve to be blasted, but the initial blast should go to this sudden sense of burning urgency after 15 years of ice cold activity when they didn't have the cash secured which was their advertised plan all along. The biggest issue at hand isn't who got the contract to break ground, the biggest issue is they lost the 1% of credibility they may have had by issuing a contract and breaking ground in the first place. Shame, shame, although why am I surprised.

To which cronies was a couple million given to? Care to list them gdough? That's a whole lot of money to be spitting about. Ya see, ability to verify is a very liberating tool to confirm accusations,,,gives ya street cred, don'tcha know? Oh, that's right, you're just in it for the attention.

For the record, I'm just as anti-"wrecd" (credit to A.D.) as the rest of you; I just don't like it when folks jump on a train for attention. For the thrill of the ride, heck yes!--but not for attention.