President's house running over budget

[McBison]

It must have been a slow day at the Forum that they needed to write an article about a building that is over on budget but not a dime of it is being paid for by the state.

Isn't it being paid for by the Forum?

[The Lost Dutchman]

Isn't it being paid for by the Forum?

Correct, it was a nice million dollar donation by Mr. Marcil?

[roadwarrior]

I think it was a personal donation by the Marcils. Not a donation by Forum Communications.

[Ferd]

I think it was a personal donation by the Marcils. Not a donation by Forum Communications.

And I believe half was for NDSU and half for UND president's houses.

[Hammersmith]

From Marcil, not the Forum(though Marcil owns the Forum).

$2 million donation total.

$1 million to NDSU, $1 million to UND.

In each case, $900,000 to be used for construction and $100,000 to be used for furnishings.

Technically, the donations were to the respective university foundations, so they are the ones actually paying for the homes and responsible for any overages.

I think that covers it.

[Ferd]

From Marcil, not the Forum(though Marcil owns the Forum).

$2 million donation total.

$1 million to NDSU, $1 million to UND.

In each case, $900,000 to be used for construction and $100,000 to be used for furnishings.

Technically, the donations were to the respective university foundations, so they are the ones actually paying for the homes and responsible for any overages.

I think that covers it.

I stand corrected. Thanks.

[NorthernBison]

final costs presented to State today. It came in at ...... $1.8 Million.

[tony]

Bismarck Tribune had their yearly big editorial calling for Chapman's head today - and they wrote that before the $1.8 million figure was announced.

There has to be better communication between NDSU and the legislature than that (if there is a way to communicate without violating open meeting laws.)

Edit: Oh, I see, to get to $1.8 million you have to include furniture, parking, and anything tangentially related to the new house. Not sure that is a good figure then. If so, then UND is about $200k over budget. The difference is that it sounds like UND used tax money to cover all but $20k of their overruns.

[NorthernBison]

It shouldn't surprise me but I am a bit shocked that people in positions of authority can exercise such incredibly poor judgement. I don't even know who to blame but somebody was asleep at the switch to start with and then compounded it by lowballing the overrun. Wow!

This was a high profile project with some controversy. There had to be a recognition quite some time ago that the project was going to be over budget. That was the time to lay things on the table and make darn sure that you had a handle on the costs. Good idea to also have a solution.

When the project was nearing completion it was reported that it would be about $400,000 over the plan. That's quite a bit and it raised questions. Ok Fine. I guess that happens. Now the final total is another 400,000 higher?

Regardless of private financing, it sure makes it look like a three ring circus at NDSU.

[tony]

You are spot on, NorthernBison. This is a public relations debacle. Why give the people who want Chapman run out of the state ammunition?

Folks were complaining about replacing the house since people first started begging to get the job done back before Chapman was even around so you knew it was going to be bad publicity from the beginning - this lack of communication just made it monumentally worse.

Not sure where the breakdown occurred though - who managed the project and what was Chapman's role in it?

Heh, on the other hand, the REA cost about 100 times as much as this house... and it exceeded its stated budget by at least $60 million (probably much more than that).