The following story is from the Colorado Springs Gazette's County Seat blog:
The city of Colorado Springs may have turned off street lights, yanked the garbage cans out of parks and laid off hundreds of workers.
But the folks over at Colorado Springs Utilities, the electric-gas-water-waste water monopoly owned by the city, are considering spending nearly $1.1 million to remodel a building that houses energy traders and $240,000 for ergonomic furniture.
(Included in the remodeling costs is $150,000 for a new sanitary sewer line and $150,000 for a new roof.)
An employee who was outraged by the proposed expenditures tipped us off to the project. But it took a Colorado Open Records Act request to get a more complete picture of what’s planned.
Utility officials say the proposed improvements to the Systems Energy Control Center, which is located at 215 North Nichols Blvd. and adjacent to the Birdsall Power Plant, will improve worker efficiency and reduce workman’s comp claims.
“This team of people manages $400 million to $500 million a year in purchased power and purchased fuel,” Gabriel Caunt, project architect and project manager for Utilities’ facilities department, said Tuesday. ”Given the level of revenue they handle a half percentage of improvement equals a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year.”
Caunt emphasized the remodeling project is still in the early stages and may not even reach fruition. But nearly $180,000 worth of contracts associated with the project are already in place, according to one document obtained under the Colorado Open Records Act.
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