Letter: City councilors need to ‘get down to business’

After reading the latest news story about the Sanford Premier Center siding, I decided to drive to the facility, to see in person what all the fuss was about. I was shocked. Aside from the windows, the building looks like a run-down grain storage facility on a remote, rural elevator complex. Based on my 40 years of experience as a carpenter on large, commercial building projects, I have long thought that the warped siding was an expansion and/or connection issue. The latest report from the consultants seems to validate my opinion.

My advice to any concerned councilor would be to stop the posturing, grand standing and theatrics and get down to business. Get a copy of the blueprints and spec. book. In the architectural drawings, locate the page that shows the exterior elevations. Oftentimes there are many details referenced there. Next, look on the floor plan and the structural plans, at the exterior walls. You should find a cut or section through the wall and many references to pertinent details, especially ones that detail the siding to structure connection. Next, look in the spec. book under the siding section, to find out what type of metal the siding is made of and also, the manufacturer. Then, I would contact a metallurgist and find out the expansion properties of this metal, particularly when used on a curved application. I would then contact the manufacturer and ask for their installation instructions on a curved surface.

In closing, I would like to comment on the greatest dupery ever perpetrated on the taxpayers – the Washington Pavilion. The building was constructed largely on change orders, which would explain the 83 percent overrun to $33 million. The most glaring omission occurred in the outside walls. In the whole 256,000 square foot building, not one fiber of insulation was placed in the outside walls, which is why they are experiencing “higher than expected utility bills.”

Would the mayor and his crew accept that kind of work in their own homes?