Dear Editor, I see that with little fanfare the South County
Courthouse in Morgan Hill is finally complete. I would like to
voice my concerns on the county’s handling of construction
projects, specifically this project. This project was under
construction for over four years, over budget and two years over
the construction time estimate. With all the budget problems facing
the county, I feel the county should take a close look at the
management of their construction projects.
Someone needs to investigate how the county manages projects
Dear Editor,
I see that with little fanfare the South County Courthouse in Morgan Hill is finally complete. I would like to voice my concerns on the county’s handling of construction projects, specifically this project. This project was under construction for over four years, over budget and two years over the construction time estimate. With all the budget problems facing the county, I feel the county should take a close look at the management of their construction projects.
The city of Morgan Hill has completed construction on the library and recreation center in the time that the courthouse was under construction. In addition the Community and Cultural Center and Aquatics Center have been completed within the last five years. The city of Morgan Hill seems to be able to handle their construction projects very efficiently, completing them on time and on budget.
This does not seem to be the case with county projects. To make matters worse this courthouse is replacing the $40 million courthouse in San Martin that had to be abandoned after four years due to mold problems. No doubt the mold problems are due to poor construction and oversight by the county.
This is a tremendous waste of our taxpayer dollars. Having to abandon buildings and have construction projects go on interminably is a complete waste of time and money. These are not highly complex projects.
Other projects seem to get done on time and on budget. I recommend that the county take a close look at the efficiency of its operations or get out of the construction of new buildings all together.
I have also voiced this opinion to Supervisor Don Gage and encourage others to do so.
C. Owen, Morgan Hill
Socialized healthcare is not the answer to America’s woes
Dear Editor,
The Around the Water Cooler question “Do you believe the White House and the healthcare industry can work together to cut healthcare costs by $2 trillion in the next 10 years?” is hard to swallow. Even more unbelievable is the 11 to 0 count.
Let me digress. A bit about me: I am 68 years of age and have surgery performed seven times. Just a little unlucky, as only three have been major. I would have written sooner, but May 11 I had one of the surgeries (an AAA) performed at Good Sam in San Jose.
The AAA was discovered at Saint Louise Regional Hospital emergency in Gilroy by a fantastic team of ER medical staff using a CTSCAN. Lucky me. Saint Louise passed on the information to my personal physician who referred me to a cardiovascular surgeon who eventually performed a state of the art procedure and I went home May 12.
The point of my history is that if I was in Canada or England I would not have had the options I did here nor have the care that I was fortunate to have. Check out the “60 Minutes” segment on Canadian health care.
I am going to assume that the White House in the article is President Obama. If I am correct, what or when has the president or government for that matter, ever become involved in any element of society, business or otherwise, where costs reduction is part of the goal that was successful.
Our health care system is the best in the world, not one close. More than 45 percent of the pharmaceuticals used in the world was developed in America. (Source: Drug development statistics: Standard & Poors Industry Survey, Healthcare Pharmaceuticals, July 21, 2005). It cost hundreds of millions of dollars plus years of testing and FDA testing to produce these drugs. Are government lawyers going to take charge of this too? Why is the healthcare industry scared of socialized medicine? Because it does not work. Scares the average citizen to death as well.
Are there problems? Of course. Health insurance is very expensive and a major concern with most families. At one time, medical costs were associated with most bankruptcies. We are a capitalistic society where economic freedoms are paramount to our success. Take away the for-profit insurance companies, for-profit hospitals, doctors and unfortunately lawyers, and we have a major reduction in health care costs. And the innovation would go away.
But is the solution the government? No! The Water Cooler group should stick to topics of local interest, not shoot from the hip. Maybe next week, “Who has the Best Coffee, Starbucks, Peets, McDonalds, or another coffee house?”
My vote is the senior coffee at McDonalds. Tastes good at $.50.
Fred Oliveri, Morgan Hill
