Editor,

It strikes me that design charettes live and work in that perfect world of theory.

Everything is engineered to yield a project that will perform to the specs desired. It is as though the site is chosen, the hole is dug and now all best efforts go into fitting theory to practice.

So the city has begun forming the theory (engineering) to the site. Measurements have deformed upward and estimates suggest a much higher price tag.

If this were a bond issue, all would — and should — come to a halt until solutions are in place.

Well, frustratingly enough, this city sewer project hasn’t been paused or stopped yet — it’s worse than that as the city doesn’t have a strong incentive to push costs down.

The ratepayer will be on the hook. Unless the city reconsiders the scope or site, it appears those of us that pay our monthly water and sewer bill are going to get bent over, and it’s going to hurt.

The design charette group should be the first place where pushback occurs.

After all, it was in the design sessions that the sewer project failed to heed the original constraints of physical size and cost. They developed a “theory” that doesn’t fit the real world of Windjammer Park.

William Ferry

Oak Harbor