‘National Junkyard’

[SteelChip]

I have always thought of our Govt as wasteful and inefficient but when I am presented with actual facts and numbers, I cannot begin to fathom the depth of chaos that has to be applied to accomplish those results. Who runs these departments and how in God's name do they manage to hold onto those jobs when reports like this are unveiled ?

Forest Service Owns ‘National Junkyard’ of Thousands of Unused Buildings
Audit: Buildings falling apart, covered in mold, rat droppings
http://freebeacon.com/issues/forest...ail&utm_term=0_b5e6e0e9ea-b44351610c-22930469

The Forest Service manages almost 40,000 administrative, recreation, and research buildings. By comparison, there are 14,146 McDonald's restaurants in the U.S., and 13,172 Starbucks locations.

The Forest Service also manages 193 million acres of land, as well as roads, dams, and bridges, and has not dealt with $5.5 billion—nearly the amount of its entire $7 billion budget—in maintenance costs for all of its properties.

The Forest Service has identified 3,374 buildings it wants to decommission, which need $195 million worth of repairs. In all, the Forest Service's buildings need $1.195 billion in maintenance.

In addition, the Forest Service is not conducting safety inspections of dams that are considered high-risk. The Forest Service oversees approximately 3,200 dams nationwide.

"We found that [the Forest Service] continues to lack an effective control structure for validating that required plans are maintained for dams and necessary inspections of dams are performed to identify any deficiencies affecting a dam's safety," the inspector general said.

Auditors surveyed a sample of 182 dams the Forest Service oversees, and found 76 percent either had no documentation or did not receive required safety inspections.

Seventy-seven percent of dams considered to be high hazards "did not receive required safety inspections within the last 5 years." Sixty-one percent had no emergency action plan, and some that did had not been updated since 1982.

In hindsight, this makes Obama's National Park land grab look even more ludicrous.

I know most people do renewals on-line but next time you go to the DMV, think about this pic and laugh......or not.

 

[DBS1970]

There's a document somewhere written by old white men that spells out what lands the Federal Government has the authority to hold. Perhaps if we followed the Needful Buildings clause of this document things like this could be avoided.

 

[Steelr4evr]

That stuff was all fixed by Barry the marxist and his shovel ready jobs.

 

[jitter77]

My mom worked as a control room operator in a nuclear power plant and some of the stories she would tell are scary. For example the plant got 2 bobcats (skid loaders) and one was for the plant and other one a guy loaded on his truck and took it home. Also the amount of waste / cost of stuff was ridiculous. Anything from batteries to screwdrivers were like 10x normal cost due to extra "testing". Also people would pass out / OD / leave the site to go out to the bar and others would cover for them. She said the one guy called off for a day that was 3 days ago. He was so out of it he had no clue what day it even was. Homer Simpson is not too far off.

As for the forest issue what is the solution? Get rid of the buildings or pay people to fix them...i can't imagine the amount of money the govt just wastes on a daily basis. I'm sure the money is there to improve many things, but is just pissed away.

 

[SteelChip]

As for the forest issue what is the solution? Get rid of the buildings or pay people to fix them...i can't imagine the amount of money the govt just wastes on a daily basis. I'm sure the money is there to improve many things, but is just pissed away.

I think the issue is multi-pronged ..if you will.

First, there needs to be someone in charge that is capable of managing the 'business'. My guess would be that these facilities are currently being managed by someone's brother-in-law or a relative of a major donor type thing.

Second..and probably the harder solution to correct, is the unions. Even if we wanted to fire these slugs, it would be next to impossible because the contracts that have been negotiated are so off kilter that the answer maybe to fire everybody and hire private contractors to take over.. Not easy to do during a political civil war.

 

[Superman]

There's a document somewhere written by old white men that spells out what lands the Federal Government has the authority to hold. Perhaps if we followed the Needful Buildings clause of this document things like this could be avoided.

"Written by white men"

STOP your continued oppression!!!!!

 

[SteelChip]

"Written by white men"

STOP your continued oppression!!!!!

Privileged white men, if you will and don't forget it.

BTW, tomorrow is NWP day at the SN, so yinz can just take the day off.

 

[Steelr4evr]

Those brilliant white men who would have been executed by the king of england had they been captured?. This thread is turning so not inclusive or diverse. I'm feeling unsafe.

 

[Roy92040]

I think in the whole 35 years I worked for the Government I only saw 4 people actually get fired. One for job abandonment, one for popping his supervisor in the month and two for getting stoned and stealing a uniform from a ship's commanding officer's stateroom. That's the big problem. If you can't or won't do your work they will find a place for you to graze until you retire. They definitely need to drain the swamp.

 

[Djfan]

How about the government just gets out of most of the stuff they try to administer?

Or, let's increase the size of government. That's what we need.

 

[hamster]

I am all for preserving our outdoor spaces. But our governments, whether feds, state, or local, have no business holding onto unused buildings. The cost of maintenance is an unnecessary taxpayer burden, and they could be generating tax revenue if in the private sector.

 

[SteelChip]

I am all for preserving our outdoor spaces. But our governments, whether feds, state, or local, have no business holding onto unused buildings. The cost of maintenance is an unnecessary taxpayer burden, and they could be generating tax revenue if in the private sector.

This puzzles me to no end. Why is this practice so prevalent in gov't..especially federal ? It took centuries for the USPS to divest itself of abandoned buildings and when they finally did, the real estate company belonging to Diane Feinstein's husband was the one to make millions from the sales.

Why is our govt holding on to these maintenance nightmares ? One answer I saw was..

."But doing something with these buildings is a complicated job, partly because the federal government does not know what it owns.But Carper says that even when an agency knows it has a building it would like to sell, bureaucratic hurdles limit what it can do. No federal agency can sell anything unless it's uncontaminated, asbestos-free and environmentally safe. Those are expensive fixes.

Then the agency has to make sure another one doesn't want it. Then state and local governments get a crack at it, then nonprofits — and finally, a 25-year-old law requires the government to see whether it could be used as a homeless shelter.

Many agencies just lock the doors and say forget it."
http://www.npr.org/2014/03/12/287349831/governments-empty-buildings-are-costing-taxpayers-billions

Isn't that comforting !

Here's an example of a few albatrosses we are payin' for..

http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/virginia/10-terrifying-places-in-va/

 

[DBS1970]

I am all for preserving our outdoor spaces. But our governments, whether feds, state, or local, have no business holding onto unused buildings. The cost of maintenance is an unnecessary taxpayer burden, and they could be generating tax revenue if in the private sector.

At the state level parks are fine. The Constitution grants no authority to the national government to own or operate them. Same goes for National Wilderness and BLM administered lands. The needful buildings clause spells things out as to what the Feds can own for the simple fact that the founders understood that land was necessary for the people to produce sustenance and wealth and they did not want the government to control it like the aristocracy controls the land in Europe.

 

[SteelChip]

At the state level parks are fine. The Constitution grants no authority to the national government to own or operate them. Same goes for National Wilderness and BLM administered lands. The needful buildings clause spells things out as to what the Feds can own for the simple fact that the founders understood that land was necessary for the people to produce sustenance and wealth and they did not want the government to control it like the aristocracy controls the land in Europe.

Interesting.

I don't know crap about what the Govt should and should not have or do. That might be a good rainy day adventure in cyber space.

 

[MTC]

My mom worked as a control room operator in a nuclear power plant and some of the stories she would tell are scary. For example the plant got 2 bobcats (skid loaders) and one was for the plant and other one a guy loaded on his truck and took it home. Also the amount of waste / cost of stuff was ridiculous. Anything from batteries to screwdrivers were like 10x normal cost due to extra "testing". Also people would pass out / OD / leave the site to go out to the bar and others would cover for them. She said the one guy called off for a day that was 3 days ago. He was so out of it he had no clue what day it even was. Homer Simpson is not too far off.

As for the forest issue what is the solution? Get rid of the buildings or pay people to fix them...i can't imagine the amount of money the govt just wastes on a daily basis. I'm sure the money is there to improve many things, but is just pissed away.

That is scary o.o

 

[21STEELERS21]

Here is a clue on how you spot Fake News. The majority of the 40,000 buildings are cabins. If they called the buildings cabins in the story it would have detracted from the story,
so they call them recreation to hide this fact. When you know the majority are cabins and you compare them to a Starbucks or a McDonalds, that makes your story laughable.
Many of these cabins were built before 1940, the Civil Conservation Corps built many of them as a Depression project, they also built 800 parks. Also many of these cabins were built in
the 1800's when the forest service use to station rangers in remote areas to protect resources. Today we have airplanes and technology to oversee these areas, so many of these cabins have become obsolete or are used by campers.

 

[ark steel]

Here is a clue on how you spot Fake News. The majority of the 40,000 buildings are cabins. If they called the buildings cabins in the story it would have detracted from the story,
so they call them recreation to hide this fact. When you know the majority are cabins and you compare them to a Starbucks or a McDonalds, that makes your story laughable.
Many of these cabins were built before 1940, the Civil Conservation Corps built many of them as a Depression project, they also built 800 parks. Also many of these cabins were built in
the 1800's when the forest service use to station rangers in remote areas to protect resources. Today we have airplanes and technology to oversee these areas, so many of these cabins have become obsolete or are used by campers.

Many of us know a recreation building in the middle of nowhere might be a cabin. Either way it has to be maintained or, if left to dilapidate, become a hazard along with the associated liabilities. which do you prefer?

 

[hamster]

Here is a clue on how you spot Fake News. The majority of the 40,000 buildings are cabins. If they called the buildings cabins in the story it would have detracted from the story,
so they call them recreation to hide this fact. When you know the majority are cabins and you compare them to a Starbucks or a McDonalds, that makes your story laughable.
Many of these cabins were built before 1940, the Civil Conservation Corps built many of them as a Depression project, they also built 800 parks. Also many of these cabins were built in
the 1800's when the forest service use to station rangers in remote areas to protect resources. Today we have airplanes and technology to oversee these areas, so many of these cabins have become obsolete or are used by campers.

I don't care what they are. If they aren't being used, they should be sold off to rid the taxpayer of maintenance/insurance costs, and to become tax generating private property.