According to today’s Washington Post (March 15, 2007, Page One, Montgomery Extra Section), Rockville City Officials (Scott Ullery) continue to minimize the extent of road and plaza repairs needed to fix the Rockville Town Square “buckling pavers” fiasco
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"It's very unfortunate and very troubling, and the city is working with our consulting engineer to determine what happened and what failed and get it fixed as quickly as possible," said Scott Ullery, Rockville city manager.
As stated in the Post, “Among the possibilities are reinstalling the bricks on a different base, such as concrete; repaving the area in concrete with no bricks; or using asphalt. The area is less than one-third of an acre, officials said.”
However, th
e actual area is four times larger than claimed by city “officials” (click on newly revised diagram for larger view of affected area). The one third acre figure, professed by city officials (Ullery), only involves the badly deformed roadway surface on Maryland Avenue and does not take into consideration repairs and replacement of all pavers (stones) and substrata in Town Square Plaza in front of the new Rockville Library.
David Levy, the city's redevelopment chief said, "It's a pretty safe bet that the pavers will come up."
The Post reports, "Rockville's investment in the $350 million project is about $55 million [now $70M to $75M due to the VisArts give-a-way of taxpayer dollars – more to come on that]-- for public improvements, parking facilities and an arts and innovation center, [Art] Chambers [Director, Community Planning and Development Services] said."
According to the Post, "Councilmember Anne M. Robbins raised concerns ab
out whether city staff members knew about the problems last fall and failed to take action. In an interview, she called for the appointment of an independent attorney to "get the documents, get the work orders and get to the bottom of this. We really need to know what happened. . . . I want to get this cleared up and get this remedied and move on."
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Still more to come…
."It's very unfortunate and very troubling, and the city is working with our consulting engineer to determine what happened and what failed and get it fixed as quickly as possible," said Scott Ullery, Rockville city manager.
As stated in the Post, “Among the possibilities are reinstalling the bricks on a different base, such as concrete; repaving the area in concrete with no bricks; or using asphalt. The area is less than one-third of an acre, officials said.”
However, th
e actual area is four times larger than claimed by city “officials” (click on newly revised diagram for larger view of affected area). The one third acre figure, professed by city officials (Ullery), only involves the badly deformed roadway surface on Maryland Avenue and does not take into consideration repairs and replacement of all pavers (stones) and substrata in Town Square Plaza in front of the new Rockville Library.David Levy, the city's redevelopment chief said, "It's a pretty safe bet that the pavers will come up."
The Post reports, "Rockville's investment in the $350 million project is about $55 million [now $70M to $75M due to the VisArts give-a-way of taxpayer dollars – more to come on that]-- for public improvements, parking facilities and an arts and innovation center, [Art] Chambers [Director, Community Planning and Development Services] said."
According to the Post, "Councilmember Anne M. Robbins raised concerns ab
out whether city staff members knew about the problems last fall and failed to take action. In an interview, she called for the appointment of an independent attorney to "get the documents, get the work orders and get to the bottom of this. We really need to know what happened. . . . I want to get this cleared up and get this remedied and move on.".
Still more to come…
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(Click on images for larger view)
(Click on images for larger view)
4 comments:
Can’t wait for the blog to uncover the mess associated with the VisArts Cultural Arts center that’s been taking Rockville taxpayers to the cleaners.
How can Ullery get away with lying to the Washington Post? If the repair area really is an acre+ (not 1/3 of an acre), Ullery must come clean with the real extent of the problem. Why do Giammo and Hoffmann back this guy?
Disgusted in Rockville
Dear Disgusted in Rockville,
I walked around Town Square yesterday and like Levy said in the WASHINGTON POST, “…ALL the pavers will come up.” There are sections in front of the Rockville Library that ripple like waves on the ocean. We may see a lot more paver displacement when we have the next freeze in a day or so after all this rain (must be the city’s worst nightmare). The defective area IS where there are pavers (those bricks). And that area is one to one and a half acres, NOT one third of an acre (why would anyone lie to the POST?). Maybe Counsilwomen Hoofmann will declare that the warped town square topology is a fancy modern art sculpture and that’s the way her and Giammo wanted it in the first place!
Dismayed in Rockville
Hey guys get this, Giammo’s blog today says that he (giammo) was on one of O'Malley's workgroups that made recommendations about growth and development. The report’s out and Giammo wants you to read it. From what I hear, Larry’s making himself out to be a “Town Center” expert (def: x = an unknown quantity + spurt = a drip under pressure). Maybe Giammo can help other jurisdictions with innovations like the combination town square/mountain climbing trail that Rockville has now!
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