Lighting up the new garage

By Staff
Jan. 11, 2004
Should someone have known during its planning stages that more efficient lighting at Meridian's new parking garage could save money? Yes. Should the cost of the lighting have been built into the project? Yes. Were Councilmen George Thomas and Bobby Smith right to vote against a $5,000 change order for lighting that automatically dims at certain times of the day? Well, yes.
Virtually every construction project ever taken on by a governmental entity and many private companies involves changes as things move along. New technologies are invented. Agreements are altered. Planners discover new efficiencies. The lighting at the parking garage seems to be one of those things. The cost can be absorbed out of $150,000 set aside by the Meridian City Council for construction-related contingencies.
But Thomas and Smith were right to raise their voices on how the change order route can quickly become a very expensive road, especially when they thought the garage's $7 million cost was already pinned down. The option of not spending any of the $150,000 set aside is now out the window.
And, according to the reasoning of some city officials, spending $5,000 on lighting now will save money over the life of the project. It very well may. But other people could take the argument to its extreme, saying that not building the garage could have saved $7 million. Let's not go there.
The good news is that construction on the parking garage is moving along at a rapid pace. It likely will be ready for use before the Riley Education and Performing Arts Center is completed. And then it will be interesting to see what happens to Meridian's downtown timed parking spaces.
Speculation has emerged that, in order to encourage people who work downtown to use the new parking garage, the city will bring back parking meters at an hourly rate more expensive than parking in the garage.
Surely not.