  Xphillipjrx Member Username: Xphillipjrx Post Number: 135 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 68.75.240.133 |
Went out with a teacher friend of mine who teaches there. He said the pool at SW was leaking and it was determined that it needed to be rebuilt. The pool is in the center of the school so the contractors needed to tear their way in through multiple walls Tazmanian Devil style to make room for their equipment. The pool was built and there were hassles over the scrap value of the old pool, but that is another matter. The new pool design included a ledge all the way around the pool that was about 2.5 feet wide and 8 inches underwater. So if you want to enter the pool you step down, walk a couple feet and then drop down into the pool. Problem was that it's hard to know the ledge is there and a diver or a jumper would hit the ledge on the way down. Ouch. The city would not issue a permit because of the ledge. The pool had to be demolished and reconstructed a second time complete with Taz-style tearing through walls. EIGHT YEARS LATER they have a new pool. Have you heard about this fiasco? | ||
Wirt Member Username: Wirt Post Number: 28 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 64.243.32.9 |
Is the new pool acceptable now? ..Or do they need to still build a new one? | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 391 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 209.220.229.254 |
I went through high school just fine without having a pool. Why do we need pools again, especially to re-build them twice? | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 237 Registered: 06-2006 Posted From: 152.163.100.8 |
I've heard about that fiasco. It's in line with the football field at Cass (tongue in cheek). Cooley has a pool, although we don't use it and it's drained. We didn't have a gym class until last school year. Not sure if the pool will be refilled. I think Phys Ed teachers have to be certified in swimming before the pool can be useed. Typical DPS, though. Spending money and not doing the job right the first time. No wonder they have to borrow money from teachers. | ||
Islandman Member Username: Islandman Post Number: 297 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 68.42.171.59 |
The football field fiasco at Cass makes me chuckle every time. Every time I run into an old classmate, the story is retold. Maybe they should have had the students design it?  Alex Class of 88 - Architecture curriculum | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1719 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 134.215.223.211 |
Islandman, actually the contractors are faulting the students in part of the blame on the football field. Apparently they did some measurements and renderings and such as a class project for the new facility. The contractor apparently took the student's work unchecked and used their data. | ||
Islandman Member Username: Islandman Post Number: 299 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 68.42.171.59 |
Nice! Thanks for that tidbit! I was wondering if the students were involved. Shame on them! F. | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 240 Registered: 06-2006 Posted From: 152.163.100.8 |
What kind of an idiot doesn't measure twice?? Especially if the first measurements were from kids?? When they were putting it in was there no one saying, "Hey, this is too damn close to the road??" It's a joke in DPS about that football field. | ||
Paulmcall Member Username: Paulmcall Post Number: 820 Registered: 05-2004 Posted From: 68.40.119.216 |
Nice contractor! | ||
Quinn Member Username: Quinn Post Number: 781 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 64.139.64.80 |
any photos? | ||
Ed_golick Member Username: Ed_golick Post Number: 336 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.246.55.51 |
Is this another Jenkins Construction job? That's what you get when you go with the lowest bidder. | ||
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 2235 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.246.29.74 |
typical dps bullshit. during my long-ago stint at Redford HS, the DPS bought an adjoining block of homes on Chapel-Burgess, to build an addition on. After they had demolished an entire block of handsome brick homes, they figured out that it was very expensive to extend a school across an existing street, so the idea was scrapped. A new addition was built on the lawn of the oldest wing. That was also a bit of a waste, as enrollment dropped from the 80's on. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 146 Registered: 04-2006 Posted From: 64.131.176.232 |
The football field thing at Cass isn't the first blunder for that school either. The swimming pool in the new wing of the old Cass was intended to host the meets for all the high schools in that region. It could never be used because the contractor used the wrong units to measure the pool... | ||
Commodore64 Member Username: Commodore64 Post Number: 223 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 71.65.11.254 |
-- Quote -- It could never be used because the contractor used the wrong units to measure the pool... -- Typical low ball bid blunder. I love it! | ||
Morena Member Username: Morena Post Number: 450 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 69.242.214.135 |
Take notes Detroit. This is how you replace a pool and I bet anyone that when it's completed, it will be awesome. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20060722/M ETRO/607220353/1003 Quote from the article ... "About 2,000 to 2,500 residents use the pool daily during the summer. Last season, record attendance topped 245,000." I bet the Southwestern pool alone has had cost-overruns of more than 1 million already. | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1725 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 134.215.223.211 |
Seems like a pretty standard maintenance thing there Morena. Nothing to get all worked up about. | ||
Morena Member Username: Morena Post Number: 452 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 216.45.2.138 |
Bvos: There are people inside DPS, often referred to as leaders, doing a horrible job of monitoring construction projects and spending. When the school district pays double and triple the costs for projects such as a pool replacement taxpaying Detroiters should be very angry. I posted the Grosse Pointe pool link because it shows that a pool that is about to be replaced for right around 1 million. My post also shows that 2,000 to 2,500 people use the Grosse Pointe pool daily. This is called efficiency. If you want to call it "pretty standard maintenance", that's your choice. But as a taxpaying resident of Detroit and as a person that voted YES for the 1.5 billion DPS Bond program in 1994, I'm angry that this is how our tax dollars were spent! | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1736 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 134.215.223.211 |
I wasn't saying the DPS is standard operating procedures. No Way! As a taxpayer who voted yes on the bond, I too am pissed about the total and complete incompetence. I was refering to the GP pool as being pretty common stuff. I didn't really understand where you were going with that post (there's a whole lot of stuff that can be assumed when you bring up the Pointes). I agree with what you're saying. Find someone competent to do the whole design/bidding/contracting process and you'll save money despite having to pay this competent person a little more in salary. | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 254 Registered: 06-2006 Posted From: 64.12.116.204 |
Contractors who were brought in a few years ago to make our school compliant with ADA regulations in prepartation for the CI school to join ours (and redoing about 2 dozen rooms) threw away all of our textbooks (in the English Dept) and all of our novels. They also destroyed about 2 dozen book cases. DPS had to purchase (or borrow) books. We don't have novels yet. White Construction Company (no snickers please) didn't pay a dime for our loss. Another snafu at the taxpayers expense. | ||
Morena Member Username: Morena Post Number: 454 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 216.45.2.138 |
These examples don't even begin to scratch the surface of the problems that exist within DPS. We read a few weeks ago that a district official misspent Title I money by almost 1 million, which the district will have to pay back. How many times have we heard this story? How long are we going to continue to take it? Swimming pools, media labs, building additions, equipment purchases that never get to where they are supposed to go and the list goes on and on while the Board fights about who is going to conduct disciplinary hearings. Reform DPS NOW and give Detroiters more educational choices! Bvos: Sorry for snapping at you. | ||
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 2237 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 69.3.125.197 |
just for a bit of perspective, other districts have their bumblings too. In Los Angeles a decade or so back, it was decided that Belmont HS would get a much needed replacement building. A large tract of vacant land adjacent to the school was purchased. Unfortunately, the land contained both hazardous chemicals and a fault line. Yes, that's a fissure in the earth prone to earthquakes. They figured this out when the building was about half completed. The new building sits, unfinished and boarded. The LA School Board now runs away from any sort of controversial building ideas, like building a new school in the old Ambassador Hotel. | ||
Pamequus Member Username: Pamequus Post Number: 66 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 158.229.218.204 |
DETROITTEACHER.. White Construction Company?? From where?? Inquiring minds want to know........ | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 255 Registered: 06-2006 Posted From: 205.188.116.137 |
Here's a link to their site. If you look under projects then click on educational it will take you to a list of schools they've done work for. Cooley high is in there. I'm not sure if it was them or someone they contracted to move things who thew away and broke books, bookshelves. But, they were in charge. http://whitecon.com/ | ||
Morena Member Username: Morena Post Number: 456 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 216.45.2.138 |
As I stated in my last post regarding the school boards power over contracts and contractors. The article below in today's Detroit News. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb cs.dll/article?AID=/20060725/S CHOOLS/607250400 $10 million on textbooks (even though the textbook budget is short $5.2 million) and an $11 million technology contract to (4) Detroit Based Businesses that were probably just established last night. Unbelieveable! I can imagine the discussion around the textbook action item. Rev. Murray - Our babies deserve only the best and newest textbooks on the market. Never worry I'm Rev. Murray! Thornton - I second that. I don't care how much we go further into debt. Rep. Lemmons bill will eliminate our $250 million debt that the Deform Board got us into in the first place. It's all about the babies. Carter - Chilren first. That's a quick $21 million dollar vote in one night. At their next formal meeting, they'll be another $20 plus million dollar set of contracts for them to act on too. | ||
Billybbrew Member Username: Billybbrew Post Number: 194 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 205.188.116.137 |
As a partner in a marine construction/contracting company, it's always been my understanding that the contractor is responsible (or their bonding company) for the cost to fix any mistakes and errors and we don't get paid until the job is completed per specs. I don't know of any job where we've been paid extra for overruns, if anything, there were penalties if things were not completed on time or in a satisfactory manner. Of course if the specifications were not correct that the bid was based on, then it would not be the contractor's fault and there could be extra money involved. But things such as broken bookshelves, lost books, etc, should be the responsibility of the contractor, not the taxpayer. Why is this not true with these types of projects....(I'm basing this opinion on 21 years experience) (Message edited by BillyBBrew on July 25, 2006) | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 1739 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 68.248.0.137 |
Billybbrew, that's true, but you usually have to hound the contractor like hell to get them to pay up (this is speaking from my construction management experience). Morena, no problem. I understand your frustration. With the IT contract, I completely agree with the dropping of Compuware. Their help desk support and on-site service sucked for DPS! As a former DPS contractor I had to put in numerous requests for computer repairs, telephone installation/repairs, email accounts, etc. Not once did I talk to a polite person and not once did the work get done within two weeks (despite having an unusable computer/phone) without having to call up the chain of command at DPS and going over the IT department's head. I only got this "service" because I worked with a lot of high ranking directors. There are schools with no working computers and dozens of non-working phones who've done everything they were supposed to get them fixed by Compuware. Many of these schools have had to use their descretionary funds to pay an outside company to come in and get things working properly. Hopefully the use of 4 contractors will create some competition and result in some customer service and proper response time for the DPS and its students. | ||
Billybbrew Member Username: Billybbrew Post Number: 195 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 152.163.100.8 |
To me it's simple...don't pay the contractor's final payment until the job is satisfactorily done. | ||
Morena Member Username: Morena Post Number: 457 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 69.242.214.135 |
And the beat goes on and the beat goes ooonnn ... The beat goes http://www.clickondetroit.com/ news/9573945/detail.html | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 259 Registered: 06-2006 Posted From: 205.188.116.137 |
Oh for the love of Christmas Cookies!! We don't have books but dammit we have new sod!! | ||
Motorcitymayor2026 Member Username: Motorcitymayor2026 Post Number: 1051 Registered: 10-2005 Posted From: 24.231.189.137 |
After looking at all the projects, a huge majority done inside the city (including 9 DPS buildings), they sure seem pretty credible. I am surprised that there were those problems at Cooley. They have a pretty extensive background work list an reputation including, Childrens Hospital, Campus Martius, multiple banks, churches, schools, etc... | ||
Detroitteacher Member Username: Detroitteacher Post Number: 265 Registered: 06-2006 Posted From: 205.188.116.137 |
It may have been the subs that they hired in to move things around. We were also shocked at the lack of respect for our books. |
