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THINK ABOUT IT
Ninth in a
series of newsletters by former Local 150 Financial Secretary Ray Connors
MR.
DUGAN'S MONUMENT
The
concept — At some time in the not too
distant past, Bill Dugan decided that a brand new, best in the
world, training site would be a fitting monument to himself. Never
mind that we already had a state of the art training site that was
the envy of most other unions, with the only disadvantage being that
it was not centrally located geographically. But that issue was not
part of his plan. This new site would not be any more accessible to
our members than the old one. Never mind the pleading that Joe Ward
and I did for years for a couple of small satellite sites that would
not only serve the members in the outlying districts, but would also
cost much less. That wasn’t part of his plan either. His plan was to
build the Bill Dugan Institute of Apprenticeship Training, which
would honor his memory forever.
Bill Dugan’s architect was
to design him the best that money could buy — enclosed, heated,
domed arena, with all top of the line materials; the best of
everything.
Now, how many of you have
yet, or will in the future, ever operate equipment in a nice,
heated, covered arena? And let’s not forget the site’s state of the
art kitchen, which they plan to staff from the culinary program of
Joliet Community College. We all know just how important a nice
catered gourmet meal is to learning how to operate equipment! I
know it’s been a long time, Bill, but have you forgotten that in the
real world, most equipment operators carry a lunchbox to work? And
then there’s that 200-seat auditorium — maybe they are planning on
staging a few concerts for us.
Incidentally, if any of you
are contemplating taking a day trip, and you just couldn’t afford
solid oak doors or terrazzo floors in your home, you could travel to
Wilmington, and maybe he will allow you touch those that you paid
for at the new site. (the doors were originally supposed to be solid
cherry, but in a last minute “cost-cutting” move, they were changed
to solid oak). And while you’re there, if it’s really your lucky
day, maybe you could even tour the site’s $48,000+ gun range —
another necessity for learning to operate equipment!
The cost — As
incredible as it seems, there were never any cost parameters set
prior to starting the project. So we really don’t have a figure for
the estimated cost at the outset. The actual figures for the cost of
construction have varied, depending upon whom you ask and when you
ask them, but at this time we seem to have a cost of $54 million.
Bill Dugan has also told us that there were “costs outside of the
construction contract, which were incurred before, during, and after
the signing of the contract.” I don’t know what that means, or how
much those “costs” were. But the architect’s fee was 6 1/2 % of the
project cost; based on $54 million, that alone would be over $3
million.
As we all know, the “very
best of everything” is not cheap. The dollars began to add up, and
Local 150 didn’t have enough money. So Bill Dugan (well, not Bill
Dugan, personally, it is actually you who will pay) took out a loan.
I don’t know the amount of that loan, or how much interest Local 150
is paying on it, or for how long we will be paying it off. Maybe
someone will tell us someday.
But low and behold, there
still wasn’t enough money. “I know”, Dugan said, “i’ll just make the
members pay more dues for my memorial.” So the members were
underhandedly assessed another 1% in dues. (see next week’s THINK
ABOUT IT for the details).
Additionally, it is
estimated that this new site will cost approximately 12 million
dollars a year to operate, including a half million just for
property taxes. Now, does anyone think that there will ever be
enough money to run this place and pay off the outstanding loan,
without maintaining that increased dues assessment forever?
The conclusion
— Bill Dugan now has an obscenely expensive, unnecessary, “nothing
but the best” training site (plus kitchen, auditorium, gun range,
etc.) which will be of no benefit to the vast majority of our
members who have been manipulated into paying for it. He has spent
54 million dollars of your money on his monument (and no matter how
fast you say it, or try to gloss over it, that’s one hell of a lot
of money), and will spend unending millions more of your money every
year to maintain it. And he has the nerve
to tell you about all that he has given you!
THINK
ABOUT IT.
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