Meetings in Nevada County: Save the Date!

As you may know, the Sierra College Nevada County Campus is in the midst of a $47 million expansion project. Massive construction inflation is causing significant problems with the project, creating the need for our community to develop a consensus on how to move forward.

I'm in the process of scheduling two meetings up in Nevada County for this coming Friday, January 18. The first will be a "coffee chat" at 3:30PM, and the second will be a slightly larger "town hall" meeting at 6:30PM.

Locations have not been set yet, but I'll communicate those here and in The Union newspaper as quickly as possible. If you can be there at either or both events, I'd love to hear from you!

Comments

[Aaron Klein]

Russ,

That troubles me as well. It troubles me that the promise was made in the first place, because Sierra College is required by law to follow certain practices in "equal opportunity contracting" that make it impossible for us to guarantee that our local contractors get the work.

Be that as it may, I know that our team did the maximum extent that it could under the law to encourage local contractors to bid, in an effort to spend our tax dollars locally. The bids have not been presented to the board for approval, so I don't have personal knowledge of whether any local bids were successful, and if not, what the reasons were.

Both of the issues you've raised here underscore one very clear point: we need serious reforms of our state laws and regulations regarding construction of community college facilities, to put the interests of our local taxpayers and local economies first.

Best,
Aaron

[Russ]

Aaron,

Thanks for the quick reply. When the final number come in I would like to know what they are. It troubles me that some of the construction work is not being done by local contractors. We never got it in writing, but we were all led to believe that some of the work would stay local. I think some one should look to see if it is true that none were qualified, too small I heard. It will be a lot tougher to get the next bond passed next time, you can only fool me once.

[Aaron Klein]

Hi Russell,

I don't have updated numbers yet after the construction inflation that has occurred. But you are correct -- the most recent numbers I heard were $440 per square foot. Amazing to think it will be even higher than that now.

This is something that I'm very frustrated about, and that I've raised numerous times at board meetings. The fact is that state regulations are driving those costs.

In fact, the architectural firm we have running our project is building community college facilities in the State of Arizona for around $250 per square foot.

Our state regulations require that we build our community college buildings to "Department of State Architect" regulations, as if we're on top of the San Andreas fault and have earthquakes every couple of days.

Second, our state regulations, which were driven by union lobbying in Sacramento, require that we pay what is known as "prevailing wage" to all construction workers.

As I said, without these two regulations, Arizona is putting up these same buildings for as much as HALF what it costs in California.

As a trustee, that's incredibly frustrating to me -- and I will continue to push for ways to cut construction costs and use taxpayer funds as wisely as possible. I will also continue asking our state legislators to reform these laws and stop regulating us to death.

Let me know if you have further questions.

[Russ]

Aaron,

As the building costs rise, what is the cost per square foot for the new college buildings, when compared with standard commercial construction. I heard the college cost per/square foot was over $460 dollars. Is this true?