Dope smack-down hits front page

The Inside Dope is one of the top local political bloggers in the state, and today one of his scoops landed on the front page of his local paper.

The Dope wandered through Moline's new library not long ago and pronounced it a "multi-million dollar disappointment."

...there's a high pitched whine like a distant tornado that's noticeable everywhere in the building and which rises and falls depending on if doors are being opened or not.

He also noticed some very expensive looking chairs in a meeting room. Herman Miller Aeron chairs. The good ones.

The post drew the notice of the Argus/Dispatch, which plastered a story across the front page today.

The Moline Public Library spent $38,008 on 56 chairs for one conference room and at employee work stations.

The chairs, adjustable Herman Miller Aeron chairs with arm rests, cost $678.72 each. Twenty-four are in one of the library's three conference rooms, and the rest are at employee work stations.

The library also spent $33,470 on 193 Herman Miller side chairs with arms for desks and computer work stations and $35,535 on 250 armless chairs for meeting rooms.

Library director Leslie Kee said she didn't think $107,013 for chairs was extravagant. She said the chairs, which are not top-of-the-line, were recommended by the architects and agreed to by the library board's furnishings committee.

And defying my hard and fast rule that there ain't no hat tips in the MSM, the paper actually credited the Dope for reporting the story first. They even provided a link in the online edition.

Good for the Dope. Good for the Argus/Dispatch.

[Hat tip to my mom.]