Earthpark: Bloggers Doing The Jobs That The Media Won't

Nicholas Johnson from the "Week Long Wake" (December 6 update):

While I'm happy to help out with the above email to the DOE, I really think this story is the media's -- primarily the Des Moines Register, The Gazette, Iowa City Press-Citizen and Daily Iowan -- responsibility to (1) demand the document from Oman and the DOE, suing for it under FOIA if necessary, and then (2) question Senator Grassley along the lines I've indicated below.

Let's face it: This has been a major Iowa (and national) story for ten years; it's now come to a head; it's either dead or dying (i.e., it either is flat broke, or it has been granted $47 million toward the $300 million it needs -- with a decade long track record of being unable to raise one dime in cash). In either case it is a big, big story. And while I appreciate the Register at least reporting that it has done nothing, and knows nothing about it -- which is more than the other three papers have bothered to tell us -- that's scarcely what I think we have a right to expect from one of America's largest newspaper chains at a time when they're trying to convince us of the wisdom of permitting them to own TV stations in the same markets they dominate with their newspapers.

Indeed.

I must say, I am amused with this quote in Johnson's post: "...i.e., it either is flat broke, or it has been granted $47 million toward the $300 million it needs..."

I laughed quite a while after reading that bit.

I'm sure it was no accident that he used $300 million to describe the potential costs of the project.

After all, the project was originally expected to cost $280 million to $300 million, and that was in 1998-era dollars. Sure, it got scaled back several times. The school was nixed. The million gallon aquarium was cut almost in half. The IMAX theater disappeared. I'm sure a few other things were lopped off or scaled down. But if you talk to anybody in the construction industry they'll tell you that costs fluctuate all the time and they never go down!

So I applaud Mr Johnson for saying the Earthpark rainforest will cost $300 million. How is he any less accurate than David Oman himself?

Actually, I think Johnson may be a bit low. Oman is saying that the rainforest can be built in Pella for $140 million. 8 years ago, the Coralville rainforest was expected to cost $180 million. What was scaled back from Coralville to Pella? How could the price tag go down $40 million during a time in which overall inflation rose 18% to 20%?

My rule of thumb is the Englert Theater restoration in Iowa City. It went 150% over budget and a couple years off course. Considering Oman's SWAG of $140 million, that would mean the Pella Rainforest will likely cost $350 million.