Letters to the editor for Thursday, March 5, 2015

What is the true cost of MAC?

I support the CC-MAC, and am glad to see it coming to fruition. I support public construction projects like the MAC for both the benefit to the citizens and the benefit to the local economy, where the accountability is for the true cost.

Originally it was a $7 million project; now an article says the cost is $7.7 million, and two paragraphs later, see that there is another $600K not included in that figure. The $600,000 includes engineering, architect fee, surveying, etc., things needed to get the project built. Does this include the fees paid to the CMAR?

As a consumer, I want to know how much the entire project will cost. Is the CMAR tied to a price, or will there be more cost increases coming? Is the CMAR truly at risk to bring the building in the fixed cost now of $8.3 million?

There are numerous ways to do bookkeeping; it seems to be a red flag to me when costs like engineering and architectural fees are separated from the cost of the building. What is the current total project cost projection including everything that it will take to get the doors open on the CC-MAC and how can we be assured this price isn’t going to continue to increase?

How can the taxpayers hold anyone accountable if we don’t know what the total true cost is projected to be now to compare what the actual final cost is when completed?

Paul Holloway

Carson City

Keep public lands federal

Anne Macquarie is right on in her commentary on Feb. 25 regarding the turn over of public lands to the states.

Nevada has had and still has a very poor record of protecting citizens rights to preserve current access to these lands. Any public lands now held by the federal government should remain in its hands unless the turnover agreement guarantees any existing right of the citizens of Nevada to access these lands. The current request in the state legislator, SJR 1, has no guarantees in it that Nevada will protect those rights. If you enjoy walking, hiking, riding bicycles on public lands I encourage to ask your legislator to vote no on SJR1.

Granted the BLM is not always perfect in its decisions, but it is 100 percent better at it than our state legislators have been.

Thank you,

George J. Gosselin

Carson City