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Post by rtxc1 on Oct 6, 2023 1:51:38 GMT -6
The price tags in Prosper ISD's bond are ridiculous. $500M for a high school? $95M for a stadium? Inflation or not, those prices don't quite add up.
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Post by warcat82 on Oct 6, 2023 5:27:37 GMT -6
The price tags in Prosper ISD's bond are ridiculous. $500M for a high school? $95M for a stadium? Inflation or not, those prices don't quite add up. Yeah I wonder how much of that is going into the contractor's personal bank account and/or school board members personal bank accounts like what happen at ccisd...
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Post by picodegallo on Oct 6, 2023 6:49:06 GMT -6
The price tags in Prosper ISD's bond are ridiculous. $500M for a high school? $95M for a stadium? Inflation or not, those prices don't quite add up. Yeah I wonder how much of that is going into the contractor's personal bank account and/or school board members personal bank accounts like what happen at ccisd... Yea the price of the new Carrol high school down here was high enough to spark interest from the FBI to investigate the construction firm and raid a school board members home a few years ago. The same contractor that seems to get first dibs on almost every public project in this city to the point outside contractors with great reputations wouldn’t even waste a minute bidding because they knew the fix was in. It think the final price was $250 million vs the $100 or so million that Vets was built for only a few years earlier? Nothing ever was released of the investigation to date. There have been a number of contractors and school board members at RGV schools who have or are spending time in a Club Fed or State Hilton for shady stuff related to bidding.
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Post by Clemensbuff on Oct 6, 2023 8:14:35 GMT -6
Prosper ISD is proposing to build a new 8000 seat stadium as part of a 2.4 billion bond package on November 7. That new stadium is part of an athletic portion of the bond of 104 million and the stadium will cost 94 million which is 14 million more than the current most expensive Cy Fair stadium at 80 million. Wow How in the hell can an 8k seat stadium cost nearly $100m? Makes absolutely no sense even in this cost crazy construction world today
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Post by Clemensbuff on Oct 6, 2023 8:16:01 GMT -6
The price tags in Prosper ISD's bond are ridiculous. $500M for a high school? $95M for a stadium? Inflation or not, those prices don't quite add up. Yeah I wonder how much of that is going into the contractor's personal bank account and/or school board members personal bank accounts like what happen at ccisd... Hahahah Sorry, but this doesn't work that way at all. When it is public money you aren't getting away with that kind of BS. Where the money goes is watched very, very closely and scrutinized down to the last dollar on construction projects.
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Post by Clemensbuff on Oct 6, 2023 8:19:44 GMT -6
Yeah I wonder how much of that is going into the contractor's personal bank account and/or school board members personal bank accounts like what happen at ccisd... Yea the price of the new Carrol high school down here was high enough to spark interest from the FBI to investigate the construction firm and raid a school board members home a few years ago. The same contractor that seems to get first dibs on almost every public project in this city to the point outside contractors with great reputations wouldn’t even waste a minute bidding because they knew the fix was in. It think the final price was $250 million vs the $100 or so million that Vets was built for only a few years earlier? Nothing ever was released of the investigation to date. There have been a number of contractors and school board members at RGV schools who have or are spending time in a Club Fed or State Hilton for shady stuff related to bidding. There is a reason for the huge cost increases. Here is one: In our company our composite labor rate has increased by about 35% just in the last 3 years. Here is another: The cost of commodity items has more than doubled in the last 3 years. One example is PVC. 4" schedule 40 PVC 3 years ago was about $158/1000. Today it is over $600/1000 and it got as high as $880/1000. Just look at fuel costs for an easy example and what a gallon of gas and diesel was 3 years ago vs today. Most people think $4/gal for diesel is not that bad because it got up to damn near $5. It was under $2 just 3 years ago!
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Post by picodegallo on Oct 6, 2023 8:51:06 GMT -6
Yea the price of the new Carrol high school down here was high enough to spark interest from the FBI to investigate the construction firm and raid a school board members home a few years ago. The same contractor that seems to get first dibs on almost every public project in this city to the point outside contractors with great reputations wouldn’t even waste a minute bidding because they knew the fix was in. It think the final price was $250 million vs the $100 or so million that Vets was built for only a few years earlier? Nothing ever was released of the investigation to date. There have been a number of contractors and school board members at RGV schools who have or are spending time in a Club Fed or State Hilton for shady stuff related to bidding. There is a reason for the huge cost increases. Here is one: In our company our composite labor rate has increased by about 35% just in the last 3 years. Here is another: The cost of commodity items has more than doubled in the last 3 years. One example is PVC. 4" schedule 40 PVC 3 years ago was about $158/1000. Today it is over $600/1000 and it got as high as $880/1000. Just look at fuel costs for an easy example and what a gallon of gas and diesel was 3 years ago vs today. Most people think $4/gal for diesel is not that bad because it got up to damn near $5. It was under $2 just 3 years ago! Oh I get that. I've seen it first hand in both businesses I have my hands in right now. BUT from something like $100 million in 2014 to $250 million in 2020? I know the Carrol building is a little bigger than Vets, but they have some similar design elements meaning they didn't have to go all in with Architects having to totally reinvent the wheel. One thing they did do which was stupid was buy prime commercial property which means they paid a premium for the land. This is after they went against the city and Navy guidance and bought acres directly in the landing path of the Cabaniss auxiliary field on their first attempt to build the new Carroll . They took a giant loss on that and the property might still be owned by the ISD because no one with a good supply of brains cells is going to buy and build something there unless its ballpark complex or something. The only thing it might be good for is it to revert back to farmland and the ISD earning a few bucks on a lease. Just dumb to the max!
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Post by rtxc1 on Oct 6, 2023 12:55:53 GMT -6
None of this is as bad as Lamar Consolidated ISD.
2020: Voters reject $94M stadium. 2022: Voters reject $195M stadium (and $5M to update Traylor Stadium).
LCISD is now asking for $15M to update Traylor Stadium, and is retaliating against voters by scheduling 1 home game for each school to take place at its campus. Each campus stadium has minimal seating.
This is completely avoidable in multiple ways by A) having the central athletic admin having a heavier hand in nondistrict scheduling, B) putting forth a reasonable bond for a new stadium, and C) the district rezoning its schools as necessary to keep them in the same district.
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Post by FB fan on Oct 6, 2023 13:08:00 GMT -6
You guys with a million here a million there are killing me. All I want at FB is to expand the visitors stands and press box and make it the home side. They say the ADA requires an elevator for the expansion and that makes it too expensive.
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Post by BandidoNB on Oct 7, 2023 1:53:21 GMT -6
These Dallas and Houston area suburb districts are ruining stadium expansions for the rest of the state. I think it’s because of these $40-100 million stadium bonds that stadium bonds are now required to be their own vote.
New Braunfels ISD narrowly lost a bond election recently for just $20 million that would have both funded a brand new 7,000 stadium for its upcoming new high school as well as increasing capacity to 11,000 for Unicorn Stadium and adding a new press box to the visitors side. I know these bonds would’ve passed if they were attached to the main bond. I feel like over time this is going to hurt extracurricular activities. Such a ridiculous law that hurts way more districts than the metro suburb school districts which will harvest the votes to build these large stadiums anyway.
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Post by picodegallo on Oct 7, 2023 7:11:24 GMT -6
These Dallas and Houston area suburb districts are ruining stadium expansions for the rest of the state. I think it’s because of these $40-100 million stadium bonds that stadium bonds are now required to be their own vote. New Braunfels ISD narrowly lost a bond election recently for just $20 million that would have both funded a brand new 7,000 stadium for its upcoming new high school as well as increasing capacity to 11,000 for Unicorn Stadium and adding a new press box to the visitors side. I know these bonds would’ve passed if they were attached to the main bond. I feel like over time this is going to hurt extracurricular activities. Such a ridiculous law that hurts way more districts than the metro suburb school districts which will harvest the votes to build these large stadiums anyway. We (Calallen) had a bond election last May and the bond with non athletic stadium improvements passed, with the one with stadium improvements failed by 14 fricken votes. That bond would’ve turfed the softball and baseball fields and upgraded the football stadium pressbox, scoreboard, restrooms and concession stands. It was only $15 million of the total bond package, but if you read some of the misinformation on social media and Nextdoor, one would think every penny was going to the football stadium and the end result was going to be Prosper like build. I got in some heated discussions with some of those numb nuts who were going on and on about how football gets everything and they were going to vote against it because of that . I told them and I could prove it on paper that the band the last two years and I project this year will be the biggest revenue generator for the stadium because we host three band contests with the last one being the contest which punches the regions winners tickets to state. Our football games have been poorly attended in part because the visiting teams crowds are almost non existent due to travel with a couple of exceptions each of the last two seasons. That band contest alone last year brought in anywhere close to 10 to 12k in people to the stadium last October. I know because I worked the contest at the bus parking lot from 5:00 AM to 8:00 PM. The bands come from as far away as Canyon Lake in your neck of the woods to the Houston area all the way down to the RGV. Parents and the kids have to eat somewhere and pick up other supplies for the day and it was a banner day for the merchants around the area. The Chic Fil A owner who has her store right across the street from the High School confirmed that Saturday last October was her best day since she opened four years ago and I bet it was the same for many others. But the idiots wouldn’t have anything to do with that which is ironic because in the very same arguments they were saying that school should be asking business to help pay for things like the scoreboard. So let me get this straight. Go ask business for help for things, but in turn do nothing to help attract or retain events in the area which help them generate revenue to be charitable with? Make a whole lot of *ucking sense. Right? Some of these people don’t understand out this way because of the way Corpus is spread out, we don’t have the large venues for other entertainment out here which brings crowds to help business. It’s the high school athletic venues and that is it. If we lose that band contest because the UIL deems other facilities better close by, I will be spitting nails.
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Post by rtxc1 on Oct 7, 2023 13:09:48 GMT -6
These Dallas and Houston area suburb districts are ruining stadium expansions for the rest of the state. I think it’s because of these $40-100 million stadium bonds that stadium bonds are now required to be their own vote. New Braunfels ISD narrowly lost a bond election recently for just $20 million that would have both funded a brand new 7,000 stadium for its upcoming new high school as well as increasing capacity to 11,000 for Unicorn Stadium and adding a new press box to the visitors side. I know these bonds would’ve passed if they were attached to the main bond. I feel like over time this is going to hurt extracurricular activities. Such a ridiculous law that hurts way more districts than the metro suburb school districts which will harvest the votes to build these large stadiums anyway. I am not sure how Houston and Dallas are responsible for this, other than setting the bar pretty high. I do approve of the law, which will help hold school districts accountable for unnecessary spending.
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Post by picodegallo on Oct 7, 2023 14:34:57 GMT -6
These Dallas and Houston area suburb districts are ruining stadium expansions for the rest of the state. I think it’s because of these $40-100 million stadium bonds that stadium bonds are now required to be their own vote. New Braunfels ISD narrowly lost a bond election recently for just $20 million that would have both funded a brand new 7,000 stadium for its upcoming new high school as well as increasing capacity to 11,000 for Unicorn Stadium and adding a new press box to the visitors side. I know these bonds would’ve passed if they were attached to the main bond. I feel like over time this is going to hurt extracurricular activities. Such a ridiculous law that hurts way more districts than the metro suburb school districts which will harvest the votes to build these large stadiums anyway. I am not sure how Houston and Dallas are responsible for this, other than setting the bar pretty high. I do approve of the law, which will help hold school districts accountable for unnecessary spending. I think he was trying to say those stadiums make the headlines and when another area of the state tries to float a bond even for modest improvements or a no frills stadium, it gets lost in the rhetoric that ISDs care more for their stadiums than their classrooms.
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Post by BandidoNB on Oct 7, 2023 21:35:49 GMT -6
These Dallas and Houston area suburb districts are ruining stadium expansions for the rest of the state. I think it’s because of these $40-100 million stadium bonds that stadium bonds are now required to be their own vote. New Braunfels ISD narrowly lost a bond election recently for just $20 million that would have both funded a brand new 7,000 stadium for its upcoming new high school as well as increasing capacity to 11,000 for Unicorn Stadium and adding a new press box to the visitors side. I know these bonds would’ve passed if they were attached to the main bond. I feel like over time this is going to hurt extracurricular activities. Such a ridiculous law that hurts way more districts than the metro suburb school districts which will harvest the votes to build these large stadiums anyway. I am not sure how Houston and Dallas are responsible for this, other than setting the bar pretty high. I do approve of the law, which will help hold school districts accountable for unnecessary spending. We disagree on the specifics of the law. I agree with unnecessary spending; they should’ve added a stipulation or something that would’ve given it a separate vote if the seating amount-to-cost ratio exceeds a certain amount. This would allow the no frills, needed improvements a greater chance of passing.
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Post by rattlehound on Oct 7, 2023 23:11:12 GMT -6
You guys with a million here a million there are killing me. All I want at FB is to expand the visitors stands and press box and make it the home side. They say the ADA requires an elevator for the expansion and that makes it too expensive. I thought it was odd that your home side faced due west, normally the visitors face the sun. I was thinking maybe FB would rather face the sun than the coastal breeze.
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