Saturday, November 28, 2009

Money Down the Drain

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation is so proud of their new $22 million rest room project near Portage. They got the feds to pay for 90% of it, so I guess it can be considered a stimulus project, kind of like the old CCC facilities built during the Depression.

I had the privilege of using this fancy new facility during my Thanksgiving travels. The ceilings are very high, which means it is probably expensive to heat. The ladies' room felt noticeably chilly. The automatic toilet flushed three times while I was sitting on it. It flushed twice more while I was pulling up and fastening my jeans. I wonder how much more water this facility will waste compared to the old one.

3 comments:

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

You aren't surprised, are you? This is the same government that wants to give you healthcare and SWEARS they can do it on-the-cheap.

Pete Gruett said...

The old facility was replaced because it was too small to handle current usage. Buildings that handle large volumes of people usually have high ceilings to prevent those people from feeling claustrophobic. The old facility was 30 years old. The new one will be more energy efficient regardless of ceiling height, especially if they keep the heat low.

Also, I fail to see why a malfunctioning automatic toilet invalidates the need to replace the old facility which almost certainly had been upgraded to automatic toilets itself. It just had fewer of them, but nobody ever complains about lines.

I suppose we should all just roll our eyes at the futility of trying to do anything . . . ever.

Ordinary Jill said...

So why do we have to choose between a shabby, too-small facility and an overbuilt, energy-inefficient one?

Why couldn't we spend the money to build something practical rather than a Wright-inspired monstrosity with a flat roof that is bound to leak after several Wisconsin winters?