The city is about to sign a contract with an out of town architecture firm to design one of our new fire stations.
The initial contract will be for over $540 thousand dollars.
Why do we need to spend so much money designing a new fire station? Don’t we have others that have recently been built?
State law does require that an architect be used on such buildings but couldn’t we have them start with plans from one we already have built?
The school districts are doing the same thing. Why does each new school have to be of a different design from previous ones?
The city manager tells us that he is teaching city staff how to be less inefficient. Isn’t this inefficient?
Couldn’t we save some money here?
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
YES! We could save money. The illustration used in the Public Safety Bond is a good example of a design we don’t need in a police building – lots of glass – how does that relate to the security needed for a police building? We have some beautiful old fire stations, why not continue the use of using those designs as a starting point? They can be modern and yet pay homage to our past. Why not give the architect a concept to direct them? Instead too many architects want to make every new design something that will earn them a reward and cost us a bundle.
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name and city of architectural firm?
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Our taxes were a lot lower when we standardized public building design. Coronapocalypse is going to destroy this region’s budget performance this year. You’d think the idiots leading this city would be thinking of ways to cut back. Cloning a firehouse design to reduce the architecture fees is a no brainer. Yes, every site is different so some changes need to be made to conform to those differences, but that is cheaper than a unique design. When the city is declaring bankruptcy, no one is going to be praising city leadership for firehouse design.
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The architectural community here (along with engineers, builders and developers) has a lot of political influence. Recycling designs isn’t on the agenda.
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If there is one thing El Paso recycles, it is politicians.
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As soon as the west side elite learn that their fancy new fire house looked like one in the Northeast they would start a recall petition. That is why they all look different.
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I live on the westside. If the city did anything to save money (including scaling back unnecessary design expense), I’d be ecstatic. And I don’t know a single overtaxed neighbor who would complain either. The only westsiders demanding design bling are construction company owners and their political “hey boys or girls.”
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You don’t live in Kern…
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The Contractors in El Taxo probably just another “Friends and Family” deal, They know somebody that knows somebody. When that is the “Deal”., money is no object. The Politicians, the “Players:” of El Taxo will TAKE as much as THEY can from the Taxpayers, working people and then demand MORE, increase taxes for that “More”. Follow the money. Follow the “Deal”.
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