Barnstable County Report

Poor Planning at its BE$T

Or, how to waste a Million Dollars of taxpayer money
Informed sources claim cost was double

Hyannis inner harbor has a new landmark, some say scar on its shore; the brand new $1 million combination vistor center and Harbor Master's office. For purposes of this story and to avoid reader fatigue, we will use the figure $1 million. We will also do this because this is approximately the actual cost of the building and related improvements rounded off.

1,285 square feet and at $1 million costs around $800 per square foot

At this time the actual cost is slightly over $950,000 with two extra items remaining to be billed and paid. As this building stands it contains 1,285 square feet and at $1 million costs around $800 per square foot. Lavish residential construction costs less per square foot.

$35,000 railings?

Because it is raised five feet above the level of the federally certified flood plain on a system of wood piles the foundation cost for this structure might exceed what a traditional concrete foundation would have cost.... might have exceeded. However, the many people who know about such things whom I have asked all agree that there is no way this structure  should have cost more than half of what it has actually cost. The stainless steel railings alone cost $35,000. Railings? $35,000?

Poor planning on parade

Lavish residential construction costs less per square foot.

The new building was designed by a Boston architectural firm (their charges not included in total cost) and it was proposed and presented to the Barnstable Town Council by the Growth Management Department, then headed by Paul Niedzwiecki who was assistant town manager and who moved on one year ago to head the county planning agancy, the Cape Cod Commission. Grant moneys were used to fund the project. However, it was originally designed as  a two story building and was intended to house the entire Harbor Master's Department. The original two story building would have been two stories in height with an elevator and would have housed the entire Harbor Master's department. One of the building's more laudable features was to have been its use of electric composting toilets to honor environmental concerns. Actually the completed building uses traditional water-flush toilets connected to the town sewer...and they work only sporadically.

When town manager John Klimm became aware that Niedzwiecki's instructions to staff had been to get the project approved and underway and that the extra million dollars needed beyond the anticipated grant funds would be found somewhere he ordered a reduction in the building's size and cost. Then the Harbor Master weighed in on the issue, pointing out that he and his staff had been completely ignored in the planning process and that he had no intention of moving his entire operation from its present location on Phinney's Lane from which he serves the town's five harbors and where he can store his vehicles and equipment. The new building on the harbor would be a showplace but no place to store the gear used by the department.

The result is a one story building with one office and toilet for the assistant harbor masters who man the office twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week between May and November. There is no assistant harbor master on duty otherwise. Previously the harbor master's office on Hyannis Inner harbor was housed in a wood structure at ground level that also contained public bathrooms for men and women as well as storage for the department and the electric panels and plumbing used to serve the docks and boat slips. This building will be reduced in size but a portion will remain for the mechanical/electrical  connections to the docks.

Now the assistant harbor master on duty sits at a new desk and looks through new windows toward the harbor...but he cannot see it because there is a 42" high wood wall between him and the open water. This is the barrier required by the building code to keep the public from falling off the buidling's elevated deck. To see the harbor and the arriving and departing boats he is supposed to supervise the assitant harbor master on duty must stand on the open deck or patrol the edges of the docks, in all weather. In so doing he will not be available to answer questions from the constant stream of people who used to come directly to him at his ground level office, from which he could both talk and see. Also, the person on duty is responsible for logging in and out the commercial fishing craft which use the harbor to off load fish and take on fuel as well as the parade of pleasure craft that use the public dockage. There is book keeping to be done and there are records to be kept...from a seated position in the office from which the harbor cannot be seen.

The best feature of the new building, the architect-designed $1 million building is its secret room. One room in this building contains storage for the janitorial supplies such as mops and brooms to be used by the assistant harbor masters in their janitorial functions, for they are expected to clean toilets and mops floors as well. This same room also contains the building's utility sink and its two large electric panels. The entire building's emergency electric cut offs are in this secret room. The Town of Barnstable actually paid a registered architect to design a brand new building in such a way that to gain access to janitorial; storage and emergency power switches one has to walk from the front of the ladies room to the far rear wall, then turn left, walk  into and through the womens handicapped toilet stall then turn left again and go through an unmarked door. Barnstable paid an architect to design this and actually accepted not only the design but the building itself.

As one of the assistant harbor masters observed....what happens if he or one of his fellow workers has to get into that closet in a hurry and surprises a woman in diasarray on the toilet? Also, what happens if he or one of his fellow workers is already in the closet and becomes trapped by a handicapped woman who comes in to the toilet stall to use it? Who approved this plan? He can be found in Barnstable Village where he is busy writing the new Regional Policy Plan for the future of Cape Cod and for every aspect of our lives, even our handicapped toilets.

Perhaps worst of all is the fact that this perhaps unnecessary building is not just an exercise in ego but also a major problem. It blocks the former open harbor view of a highly taxed hotel that has been on Hyannis Inner Harbor for decades. Rumors of a tax abatement filing are swirling around Ocean Street.

What the town got for a million dollars

This new building contains the following:

• one bathroom each for men and women,
  
• one large utility closet,
  
• one open room (as yet containing nothing) to house the Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center and
  
• the office and bathroom for the harbor master