MAYOR AND THE ALEXANDRIA CITY COUNCIL THROW MORE MONEY DOWN THE FULTON HOTEL TOILET

The Alexandria City Council on Tuesday awarded a consulting contract to Alexandria architecture firm Barron, Heinberg & Brocato for improvements at the Alexander Fulton Hotel expected to cost the City as much as about $1 million. (See: "Alexandria City Council OKs contract for consultant on Fulton Hotel improvements").

Barron, Heinberg & Brocato scored the highest and was recommended by the administration to the council's Architect and Engineer Selection Committee, which was composed of three council members and two members of the administration, including Jim Ligon, the city's building services superintendent. id.

The three City Council members are Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy's sock puppets Harry Silver, Chuck Fowler and Jim Villard.

"Barron, Heinberg & Brocato will be paid a percentage -- likely around 7 percent -- of the total cost of the improvement project, which District 5 Councilman Chuck Fowler said is expected to cost the city about $1 million." id. That comes to about $70,000.

You +1'd this publicly. Undo

Barron, Heinberg & Brocato is the firm of former City Council member, Marion Chaney.

"That's the fairest way to go by it," said Jim Villard, the chairman of the A&E Selection Committee." id.

Yesterday at the City Council meeting in response to a comment made by citizen watchdog Jules Green, Council President Harry Silver said that Mr. Teddy Ray Price of Winnfield and the sole member of Third & Desoto, L.L.C., who purchased the old Weiss and Goldring building for $487,500 on January 31, 2008 and has allowed the building to remain unoccupied since and has not made any repairs to it, is waiting for the downtown hotels to reopen before he spends any money on it. ("WHAT IS HARRY SILVER'S INTEREST IN THE DOWNTOWN HOTELS?"). Silver, as you will recall, has been the staunchest supporter of Mayor Jacques Roy's Downtown Hotels Initiative (DHI) which has been ongoing since 2009 with no results.

Jacques and Harry's folly of the downtown hotels has gone on way to long, since 2009, and it has stopped being the laughing stock of the state and has become, in my opinion, a criminal drain on our City's tax dollars. Any money Jacques and Harry hope to save on the sale of the Fulton will, if not has already, been eaten up by the millions of dollars that it will cost us.

I think that federal and state law enforcement should investigate this boondoggle and the reasons behind it.

See Also:

ONCE AGAIN THE TOWN TALK SAYS TO CLOSE THE FULTON HOTEL

and

A NEW ROOF FOR THE FULTON and the posts linked thereunder