Size does matter

Get your mind out of the gutter. This is about the ridiculous nature of the new township building

I found an example of how wasteful the massive building that Exeter Township is buying to house eight employees truly is.

Up in Schuylkill County, near Cressona, the national restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse is proposing putting a restaurant on a now long vacant plot of land, according to the Reading Eagle. I’m happy for the people of the Skook getting another restaurant choice, but it points out the ridiculous nature of the new township building that the Supervisors are going to hang around our necks.

This restaurant will be 7,926 square feet. That sized restaurant allows for as many as a 317 guest capacity. According to figures from Arrant Construction, the breakdown would fall as follows.

This brought to mind the 7,046 square foot Customer’s Bank building that the township is buying for eight employees. It is way oversized for a municipal service agency.

Allowing that to be wrong a little, as in light, let’s say that 2,200 square feet is needed. Add in an overly generous 1,100 square foot meeting room, which would hold 110-183 people in theater seating according to Centric Events. More than enough seats when you consider that about five people show up to meetings. Consider all of that, and we’re using less than half the square footage of that building. For what will the rest of the 3,700 square feet be used?

Right sizing the number of employees to the size of the building puts proper square foot usage at 24-40 employees. In a simple Google search, I asked what a 5,946 square foot building capacity would be, taking out the aforemention 1,100 square feet for a meeting room.

This would allow for growth to 32 employees. 32 employees would quadruple the Administration budget from roughly $4 million to $16 million. It would also roughly double your township property taxes.

I can tell you from conversations that I’ve had with people in the township building that no thought is being given to the way that artificial intelligence can (and will) reduce headcount in municipal government. That’s not today for a municipality the size of Exeter, but it IS in the next five years. Things like full self service of engineering and codes along with necessary checks being done by AI is in use in places as far flung as California and Massachusetts. Finance departments are also ripe for reductions via AI usage. They feel they’re right sized, and are not contemplating reductions. Which leads us in the opposite direction.

I’m not saying growth is the plan, but this is the size building that they’re buying. So they are either planning for that growth, or buying a ridiculously large, opulent building the size of which they do not need. How does this in any way make sense? There will LITERALLY be echoes in that building from the heels of people walking in the cavernous emptiness. There is no need for this purchase by any metric in the realm. Taxpayer money is once again being used for purposes of which the taxpayer themselves benefit not at all. Repeating the mantra, they had $110 million from the sale of the water treatment plant and associated investment to improve the lives of the taxpayer, and not a single penny has gone to that purpose. But employees of the township and vendors have done VERY well.

I know the restaurant/township building comparison is not an apples to apples argument, but it prompted the question in my mind, and is merely an example of size, and what size in a building can do. Is this outrageously large building worth $1.3 million plus fix up costs? I say not in any way, shape, or form.