$1.7M contingency in a $34M project is only 5%–I guess that’s pretty standard in public contracts, but it seems kind of small. I suppose it’s because they know they can go back to the well for overruns, and that’s what happened here. They actually came in pretty close. It’s that $861,000 in out-of-scope costs that really hurts, especially that $600,000 for redoing the entrance.

But that’s the kind of arbitrary stuff that kills you. As an example, very late in our project, after all the plans had been approved and contractors engaged, site work partially done, we suddenly heard from the Road Commission that, oh, you can only have one curb cut–which meant the whole parking lot had to be reconfigured at enormous expense, and there was no explanation, no way to appeal, we just had to eat the cost. It rendered one whole parking lot unusable as a parking lot, but we couldn’t take it out because now the fire department wanted it to stay in. So shit happens in construction. It’s an ugly process.

At tens of millions of dollars and countless homeowner add on expenses. More mismanagement. And why didn’t the county jail know this previously, the extra Ann Arbor city costs?

Maybe council candidates can address this before the August primary but I know most have been on board with this for years as well.

In order to connect to the system, non-residential developments are required to pay a fee that’s used to disconnect existing residential footing drains. From the city’s website:

A yearlong study determined that during heavy rainstorms, excessive amounts of rainfall are directed into the sanitary sewer system via home footing drains, which then contributes to the system backing up into basements. It was learned that one of the least expensive and most effective means to address this problem would be to disconnect home footing drains as this would lessen the amount of storm water entering the City sanitary sewer system.

Ann Arbor City Council approved a City ordinance which provides funding for a citywide footing drain disconnection process, with defined eligibility standards. Implementation will follow a systematic schedule designed to provide protection first to those homes most at risk. Neighborhood meetings will be held in each area to answer homeowner questions and share detailed information on the disconnection process and covered costs of the program. Eventually, it is anticipated that footing drains throughout the community will be addressed.

However if you are going to cringe at the word criminal to describe someone in jail, don’t replace it with a worse label. The word “offender” is horrible compared to criminal. Criminal can describe having the nature of crime, which although someone may be not-guilty of a criminal offense, if they are currently in jail they have at least met some threshold of suspicion involving criminal activity. Offender, is one who offends (especially one that breaks a public law). To me, that is a harsh word to describe someone who you wish not to offend.

That being said, you can call the persons confined to the jail “occupants” or “detainees” or something else that describes status over nature.

I was also not trying to be polite or impolite in my choice of the word ‘criminal’ with respect to prisons because, by design, prisons are supposed to only have people in them who have committed a crime.