| Today's Feature
Hall Renovations Get
Muddy.
The City Council voted 8-2 last
Thursday evening to prepare a contract accepting
the bid of $1,071,000 from R.E. Smith
Construction for renovations to Memorial Hall.
The contract will still have to be approved by
the Council after two readings.
"That is above the
Dalton-Killinger Construction bid of
$1,038,000," Public Services Committee Chair
Larry Ross told the Council.
Ross has expressed concerns
about past performance by Dalton-Killinger at
earlier meetings.
Mayor Kenneth Johnson told the
Council that he would like to see any reasons for
not taking the lowest bid to be spelled out in
writing.
"I’m going to have a
trouble signing a bill, or a contract, awarding
something to a bidder that was not the lowest bid
without documentation to show why he is not the
lowest bid," said Johnson.
Council member J.D. Whitledge
stated that the City can accept the lowest
"responsible" bid.
Ross also told the Council that
the City would only have approximately $800,000
available in funding, so after the bid was
awarded negotiations would have to begin to
reduce the scope of the project. Funding would
come from $400,000 of General Funds and a
matching grant from the Missouri Veterans
Commission. The Commission has pledged up to
$600,000 in matching funds. The City had applied
for an additional $100,000 each from the Steadley
Foundation and the Boylan Trust. According to
Ross and City Administrator Tom Short, those
requests have not been allowed.
Council members Bill Putnam and
Ronnie Wells voted against the proposal.
"I am certainly in favor
of maintaining the memorial we have for our
veterans," Putnam told the Council.
"But, I think it is inadvisable for us to
accept a bid of over a million dollars when we
know we’re not going to be able to come up
with over $800,000.
"And it’s my
understanding, in talking with former Council
members, that when the project was conceived,
that the City’s contribution would be more
in the neighborhood of $200,000."
Putnam recommended rebidding
the project.
Email
From NY
Sunday, September 16th, 2001
Well so much is going on yet
still it is calming down a little. Yesterday
while we were doing laundry (finally) two large
Ford pickup trucks filled with 4 or 5 men each,
pulled up with Oklahoma license plates. I was far
away but the guys were asking for directions to
the Holland tunnel. That is how you get over to
the WTC site. The backs of their trucks were
filled with big bags of some sort of supplies. It
was nice to see hometown people all the way out
here.
I received a message last night
that no Goldman employees are missing or dead.
There were half a dozen in the building
conducting business when the first plane hit. But
they all made it out safely. Also, Goldman has
donated their cafeterias and all of the food in
them to the rescue workers. It is getting cold
here really quickly and those people are in need
of hot food desperately.
Monday morning a few people
will be venturing to work in downtown Manhattan.
After we see how the transportation works out and
if it all goes smoothly, they will slowly start
letting us back in the office. Every morning I
wake up and think...ok I feel much better; I
could go back to work today. But within an hour I
get weighted down again with everything that has
happened. And still could happen. I was feeling
good this morning when I got a voicemail from
work talking about the tragic events of last
Tuesday. He listed several things we witnessed,
in detail, and then said that Goldman realizes it
is going to be difficult for people to come back.
I’m trying to start picturing going back.
And picturing it all the days in the year
I’ve worked there that everything was
normal. I really need to see everyone and know
they are safe...but to actually work and be
productive seems impossible. We did get paid last
night. I’m not sure what the exact hold up
was but at least it was taken care of :-)
I don’t know what you hear
on your news...but there were two arrests in
Jersey City last night. They were living in an
apartment building near my old apartment. They
are believed to be connected to the bombing. I
did not watch the news all day yesterday after I
saw a few funerals in the morning that were heart
wrenching.
Today Chad and I are going to
try to do something fun with Cara. I want to be
able to get back to writing you guys about
another fun adventure we had in New York City!
:-) Thanks for keeping in touch! And I will talk
to you again soon.
Chad and I spent the day
shopping with Julie and Cara. We bought
groceries, a comforter, a lamp, some white shirts
for his school, and some new toothbrushes. Plus
we ate at Bennigans...mostly so we could eat
desert. It was a good day all in all. But the
four of us hadn’t spent any time together
since Tuesday.
Julie is a photographer for the
biggest paper in this part of the United States.
Cara is a nurse. We all had our stories to share
and relive with each other.
I found out today that Chad
didn’t realize there were people in the WTC
when it collapsed. I didn’t really know what
to tell him. He has handled the whole thing
really well. Somedays he is much stronger than
me. When we were in Home Depot buying paint and
shelving he put his hand on my cheek and told me
that HE would take care of ME.
The bad news of the day is that
they have changed their minds yet again at
Goldman and want us all to report to work. Right
or wrong - I have decided not to go. I think
tomorrow I will just try out a new way to work
and go look around and get reacquainted with the
area. Plus I would like the option to leave
whenever I am ready.
The airplanes flying overhead
still make my stomach ball up in knots. And the
sirens I used to be able to block out are now
very prominent in our lives. Most people are
getting back to a somewhat normal life here now.
Hopefully on Tuesday I will be able to do the
same. Sigh.
This is definitely not how I
planned on spending Chad’s first week of
kindergarten.
Commentary
Martin "Bubs" Hohulin
State Representative, District 126
Anything we did or didn’t
do during the Special Session is completely
overshadowed by what happened on the East Coast
this week. House leadership made the decision to
stay in Session this week, including Tuesday. I
fully supported that decision. There was nothing
to be gained by adjourning and then coming back.
There were heightened security measures at the
Capitol, but nothing extraordinary.
Naturally, even though we went
about our business, the tragedy was constantly on
our minds and in our conversations. Evenings and
spare moments were spent glued to the TVs,
watching news reports. Comments were unanimous
that we need to be quick and decisive in our
retaliation.
This is not the time to be
timid in our response. My memory went back to
when Libya was giving us problems. You might
remember that Pres. Reagan didn’t waste any
time scrambling U.S. bombers and turning Libya
into a bombed out wasteland. It has been no
coincidence that we haven’t heard much from
Khadafi since then. In fact, news reports stated
that he actually called the United States to make
sure we knew he had nothing to do with this. Do
the words "lesson learned" come to
mind?
The only thing that made me
sicker than watching the unspeakable horror
unfold was listening to the likes of Sen. Hillary
Clinton and Sen. Chuck Shumer, both New York
democrats, talk tough about what happened. I
remember like it was yesterday that Sen. Clinton
kissed the wife of Yassar Arafat and publicly
called for a Palestine nation. Her husband,
former Pres. Bill Clinton sent James Carville to
Israel to help defeat Benjamin Netahnyahou, the
leader of Israel. Netahnyahou, you will remember,
had taken a hard line against Palestine
terrorists, refusing to deal with them. With
Clinton’s assistance, he was defeated in the
subsequent election.
The time for worrying about
hurting someone’s feelings is over. For too
long, we have worried about what the United
Nations says we have to do. We have watched the
previous administration dismantle our military.
We paid a huge price for that on Tuesday. We have
to react now and react in a way that
reestablishes our role as THE superpower of the
world. Beyond that, we need to continue along
that vein, sending the message that the United
States is not someone to mess with, that if you
hurt us or our people, you will pay a massive
price. To do anything less is an insult to our
forefathers that sacrificed to make us into the
great country that we are.
As usual, I can be reached at
House Post Office, State Capitol, Jefferson City,
MO, 65101, or 1-800-878-7126, or
mhohulin@services.state.mo.us for your questions,
comments, or advice.
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