THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606280022
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 39 lines
Shawn Etter of Virginia Beach asks have the unions asked themselves what went wrong with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel bid. The answer is yes, we have.
One set of actions by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission, a group established by the General Assembly to represent the best interests of taxpayers and tollpayers in Tidewater, stands out as unfair to all taxpayers and tollpayers.
The purchase of Jonathan Corporation property located at 2465 Ferry Road, Virginia Beach, for $4 million plus a $200,000 real-estate commission removed a valuable waterfront industrial site from the tax rolls of Virginia Beach.
The representatives then entered the real-estate business by offering to lease this industrial site to the low bidder on their project.
Two of the prequalified bidders already owned waterfront industrial sites on the Chesapeake Bay. Our representatives also gave the low bidder PCL/Hardaway/ Interbeton/Joint Venture about 1.5 million in change orders to clean up and improve the property so it could be used.
If you add the almost $6 million tax-free subsidy provided by taxpayers and tollpayers to the PCL/Hardaway/Interbeton/Joint Venture (two foreign and one out-of-state contractor), the $3.8 million lower bid is no longer low. It is not the responsibility of taxpayers and tollpayers to enter the real-estate business to furnish the contractor space for his manufacturing facility.
The Building and Construction Trade Unions and local contractors prove time and again that we can compete when the playing field is level. We ended the Coleman Bridge shutdown ahead of schedule and on budget, thus earning our contractor a large bonus.
When one knows all the facts, one sees why it is impossible for taxpayers and tollpayers to support the actions of our appointed representatives, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission.
JOHN G. WALLACE IV
Chesapeake, June 13, 1996 by CNB