Back in November, Lazy Lightning covered the $90,000 treehouse cabin plan which County Commissioners turned down as too expensive. They sent the County staff members back to the drawing board to come up with cabins which were more reasonably priced and the public recently got a look at those new plans which were eventually approved.

These new cabins will be so much more appropriately priced at $56,000 but will feature a simplistic, box-style design, and will be built by high school students at DCTC before being moved to the site by home movers. While certainly less money than $90,000, the cost of many homes in Dakota County, are $56,000 cabins built by high schoolers really an acceptable expenditure in 2013?

From the article:

“I like the idea of having this education for students in the county,” said Board Chair Nancy Schouweiler. “Right there you have some potential [cabin] users.”

The 327-square-foot cabins will be insulated for four-season use but will not look like the traditional Minnesota woods getaway cabins. Designed by HGA Architects of Minneapolis, these cabins look like a plain rectangular box.

Commissioner Kathleen Gaylord questioned the plain design, comparing it to a “small garage or trailer.” She wondered if it could have a more interesting roof line or exterior finish. Gerlach said he likes the traditional look of the camper cabins in state parks.

But HGA architect Steven Dwyer defended the simple design, saying the cabins will not look like they were built by Huck Finn. The plain exterior will blend in with the trees, he said. But inside, a front window — a wall of glass — will make the cabins unique, Dwyer said.

While cabins may be something that will bring in visitors to the park and should be a part of the planning, some may continue to question spending just over a half a million dollars on nine cabins built by high-schoolers. For a county which continually prides itself in its low tax rate and smart spending, it’s fairly clear some of their choices still need work.

What do you think about this idea? Do you think the $90,000 cabins being reduced to $56,000 by utilizing high-schoolers to build them makes the plan any better or do you think it just makes it worse? Do you think that by utilizing the high-schoolers the staff didn’t have to do as much work to get what they wanted instead of going back to the drawing board to really come up with a viable solution to the problem? With many lakeshore cabins (including land) going for $100,000 in Minnesota, are you still surprised at the high cost? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Recently the StarTribune published a glorified press release for the City of Burnsville which speaks of the importance of the city bringing another full-service hotel to town, this time in the Heart of the City. While the article provides a lot of PR for the currently non-existent project, here’s to hoping we can break this down and show exactly why all of this is hubbub about nothing.

From the article:

“A hotel has absolutely been in the picture from the start,” said Skip Nienhaus, Burnsville’s economic development coordinator.

So was a successful performing arts center, white table cloth restaurants, bustling businesses, packed condos, beautiful gardens, vibrant shops, and more. None of those things came and thus the picture needs to be repainted–eliminating the need for a hotel. If you take a look at Apple Valley’s less-than-vibrant ghostdowntown, the hotel there has done absolutely nothing to attract anything to the area even though there are only two hotels in town. This hotel isn’t going to bring anything more when not only are there nine hotels in Burnsville, one of those is a full-service hotel located just down the street.

Since then, development proposals that included a hotel have come and gone.

[...]

City officials have declined to identify the hotel investors until a purchase contract for the land has been finalized.

[...]

Nienhaus said the investors haven’t specified a brand yet, but have said it would be a full-service hotel.

In other words, nothing has happened yet and details are non-existent. This was clearly the time to put out an article on the topic to tell everyone that they are in the very preliminary stages of something and that their hard-earned tax dollars are not being wasted on nothing!

City officials have said they also believe that the Burnsville Performing Arts Center, which the city built as part of the Heart of the City project, may be boosting the hotel market. The arts center was never expected to make money, but last year it lost the least money of any year since opening in 2009. This year it’s also expected to record lower-than-budgeted operating costs, according to city spokesman Marty Doll.

“May be” (it’s not).

“Was never expected to make money” (liar, liar, pants on fire).

“It lost the least money of any year since opening in 2009″ (it still lost more than they were claiming it ever would and we’re talking $800,000 when you include building costs).

“Lower-than-budgeted operating costs” (in other words, as we’ve done for several years in a row, we over-inflate the budget so we can make it and put out an article that claims exactly this).

The rest of the article goes on to talk about a hotel building boom and includes Bloomington directly on site at the Mall of America, one of the areas the article claims is exactly why Burnsville needs another hotel. The irony is astounding. However, it goes on to mention Rosemount’s Hotel Hell located by railroad tracks and in the middle of nowhere. Nothing says to Burnsville’s residents, “we need a hotel,” like Rosemount’s building of a rural hotel chain next to a gas station and railroad crossing.

What do you think about this article? Is this simply a fluff piece to show how Skippy is doing something useful or do you think this is all another big load of nonsense that will never materialize and will see a 6 sentence article after the fact? Do you think Burnsville needs another hotel? Do you think this rising building boom in other cities means Burnsville needs one too when occupancy is still less than 50%? Whatever you have to say go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.