Take the shell off this turtle and it becomes snack time for their predators.
Yes, let’s have a press conference right before a holiday weekend so no one will remember on Tuesday;
City officials will give an update on efforts to find out why metal panels on bulging on the exterior of the Denny Sanford Premier Center.
Public Works Director Mark Cotter and City Attorney Dave Pfeifle will speak at a news conference at 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, at the Premier Center, 1201 N. West Ave.
Contractors and architects have been looking into the issue since spring, and a third party expert visited the site this summer to help determine who was responsible for the way panels turned out.
The large steel sheets that line the curved face of the Premier Center are bulging where they meet, creating a ripple effect.
Cotter has said they don’t pose a structural problem and the building will open as expected in late September.
Models of the building will help determine how to correct the issue. Those are expected to be ready by mid-October.
And several councilors have still not been filled in on what is going to be said tomorrow.
Cotter’s statement about structural issues is ludicrous at best. There is not one single building inspector, construction manager, sheet metal manufacturer, etc, etc, that I have not talked to that says siding is an integral part of the structure. As a person who has worked in siding and construction, I can tell you, it is not only cosmetic, it is structural.
Rip the siding off of your own home, find out how structural it is.
So vinyl siding on a house is structural? If it’s structural, why did they wait until the building wass being finished to install it.
You have no clue what your talking about when it comes to structural components and you didn’t talk to people who knew what they were talking about either.
I suspect it’s more than just siding. When you spend 100 million without competitive bid process and inspections on an EC that cost 300 million for Lincoln NE, you’re playing Jenga.
LJL, yes, I have spoken with several professionals about the siding, and secondly, if you don’t think siding is structural, like I said, tear the siding off of your house, and see how long it lasts in the elements.
In lieu of the press conference, how about just releasing the report from the consultant? I have a funny feeling we may never see it.
There is a word play game going on here, a sleight of hand from the city, I think by saying this is not ‘structural’. Yeah, its not ‘structural’ in the sense that its failure won’t make the building collapse on itself.
However, siding requires a permit. You have to get a permit to reside your house. As a building official from another city told me, paraphrasing, building codes don’t enforce ‘pretty’ or ‘cosmetic’. That’s why you don’t have to get a permit for a kitchen countertop.
So, why would siding be a permitted improvement if it was purely cosmetic. Answer – because its not purely cosmetic. It protects the building structure and internal components. It’s failure or improper installation among other things will lead to deterioration of the internal structure, and that can cause structural problems, property damage, and health hazard (think water on certain items such as sheetrock – say hello to toxic mold). Or water on wood.
Scott got it right, if its purely cosmetic, take the siding off your house and see what happens over time.
I talked to a few city officials who definitely could answer my questions. I asked the simple questions – was the siding permitted. Answer, yes, as part of the entire permit for the structure. Ok, makes sense. Question number two – Was the siding inspected, and if so was it passed or failed with deficiencies. Answer – “the events center has had hundreds of inspections”. Notice that non-answer? I pressed and the best I could get was ‘they are working on it’. Never got a straight answer. I still have no idea if the siding was inspected and if so what the disposition was. Is that a hard question to answer?
I got a lot of bobbing and weaving from people I usually can get a good answer from. Seemed like a lot of dodging and CYA from what I could tell, with all respect.
The council out to be ashamed of themselves for showing a total lack of interest in watching out for our tax dollars and getting answers. They are about to approve the budget for next year. If you were doing your budget at home, and you had a hint that some major outlay might be in the offing, but you weren’t qualified to know what it might be, wouldn’t you be prudent to ask someone who knew what they were talking about? For example, if you maybe had staining on your ceiling wouldn’t it be prudent to get someone in that knew what they were talking about to give you an assessment and estimate so you’d know if you needed to budget for it? I’m not even claiming the building will fall down or something silly, I’m just saying as the body who appropriates money and is supposedly the watchdog for the taxpayer dollar, wouldn’t it be nice to be informed on what your worst case scenario was?
To the extent someone may say that we citizens don’t know what we’re talking about, that would be because no one seems to want to inform us.
Finally, the administration can’t keep claiming to be so transparent when they only choose to be transparent when it benefits themselves or reflects positively Let’s just hear it. What happened and what will be done to fix it – warts and all? Not just pretty mock ups and rah rah. Not that hard.
Before someone gets snarky, correction:
The council “ought” to be ashamed of themselves…
Typing too fast… 🙂
Why wasn’t this published in the news media. I check kelo. Ksfy kdlt and not a mention of it. Some more of mmm not wanting many at the fictitious meeting. Lies will catch up with this administration. There has to be a federal investigation on the whole administration .
The press conference didn’t reveal anything that I found terribly useful. The press didn’t press (parden the pun) for answers much at all during the Q&A. No mention of what went wrong, who did what, if anyone knew or suspected there was a problem before or during the install. No mention of who might pay. Basically I guess what I got out of it was the contractor per the contract has time to remedy the situation, so we’re going to try the same basic panels, except now we’re going to install the panels with a heck of a lot more fasteners and brakcets (for lack of a better term). What wasn’t mentioned at all or asked was if these panels were meant to be curved on site at all, in other words are we trying to make something work that really just won’t work? I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.
I’m wondering is the material we’re using meant to do what we’re trying to do. If not why did we use it to begin with. If so, was it simply an inadequate install, and if so how did that happen. And who is going to pay to replace all of these panels? And should we be using the same material at all? One big worry I would have would be that we might be doubling down on using a material in a way it wasn’t designed to be used, and instead of admitting it we might be just trying to make it work by fastening the heck out of it. Kind of like using a bunch of duct tape to hold ‘er together. Maybe I’m way off, but again with no answers forthcoming I’m allowed to be a bit confused.
Kermit, Kenny Jr, and Jamison should be all over this. The 2nd two are on their second terms, so they have nothing to lose by pressing for answers. Jamison ran for mayor claiming to be more open and honest than MMM. Now he has just faded into the background again. If I were him, my goal would be to show people why they were wrong in voting for MMM. This siding fiasco is the perfect opportunity.
Sickening, how the city doesn’t act on anything unless it’s their idea and Huether gets favorable political attention.
Aren’t you glad this place isn’t named after you?
Even our misrepresented crook of a mayor wouldn’t have his name on it.
Having been in and around construction for over 35 yrs, that siding does create some questions, with none of us knowing how the siding was installed, did they use caulk, are the channels designed to repel water, moisture by itself, who knows, these are valid questions to ask the project manager. That said, i took a drive by the EC bout noon today, after watching the kelo story on it last night. The way that siding is designed with the channels locking into each other doesn’t look like it could leak horizontally, the vertical end pieces that butt next to each other look like they could pose a problem however. There has to be a way to see if it does leak, and or absorb moisture as we have had a very wet August, I say do our own study and rip off a 20 x20 area, and you will be able to tell from the back of the siding, or on the insulated sheeting they applied under it, if it did or didn’t get wet.
Farmer application of barn siding – sideways – appropriate for this state.