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City, Cando, Backcountry Super Cubs Construction Project The City of Douglas and CANDO worked together on the Backcountry Super Cubs project at the business park because the City had to apply for the grant that was used for the project. After the grant was approved, there came a time when the City turned the project over to CANDO for them to manage. However, in reality, the City, CANDO, Backcountry Super Cubs and Adams Building Contractors all worked together while the project was being built. I want to share information about the Backcountry Super Cubs project that involved the City of Douglas, CANDO, and the construction contractor, Adams Building Contractors, Inc.As you have probably heard there have been and are enough problems to go around for everyone concerning that project. There are on-going problems that continue to haunt CANDO, Backcountry Super Cubs and the City of Douglas. The present City Council was recently given lots of information concerning the project from beginning to end; I say end, but in truth the end has not yet been determined. Our purpose is to find a solution for ending this project in the best way we can for CANDO, Backcountry Super Cubs and the City of Douglas. Our purpose is not to point fingers or to blame anyone, but to analyze the complete process and see what can be done at this time to find a satisfactory end to the project. Sometimes it is difficult to be open-minded, but this process will only get more mired in the mess if we fail to be open-minded and look at all sides of the issue and at how the project proceeded. Lots of mistakes were made, but in my opinion most of them were not made by the City and CANDO. I’m starting at the point that the City of Douglas and CANDO determined that the best way to proceed with the project was to use a “Design and Build” concept. Basically that means that a company would be hired to design the project, interested parties would determine if the project was what was appropriate, and the company would build what was finally determined to be appropriate for the needs ofBackcountry Super Cubs. CANDO had worked with Backcountry Super Cubs, a company interested in locating in Douglas. Therefore Backcountry Super Cubs was also involved in evaluation of planning and designing for the project. The building would be built to meet their needs as much as possible. ---PAGE BREAK--- After much planning it was finally decided to hire Adams Building Contractors to build the accepted plan they had provided from their architects/engineers. So far this seems like a good idea, and it should have gone well. The City of Douglas and CANDO decided that it would be best to not add the expense of hiring a full time “project manager” for the project. Hind sight shows this was probably a mistake and unfortunately, unknown to the City and CANDO, they were dealing with a company that may have seen this as an opportunity to cut corners. After a long difficult process,and lots of gained experience, I suspect this is a decision that The City of Douglas and CANDO both wish they had not made. But at the time this was what they thought was best. Instead of a project manager that would have been “on the job” all the time, employees from the City of Douglas and CANDO shared in the “inspection” process of making sure things were going well with the project. Nowhere did I find information that the City of Douglas or CANDO failed to do that job well. (to be continued)