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A lot of maps take up a lot of space, and that means some maps need to go if the U.S. Geological Survey is going to carry out its plan to shrink the size of its Menlo Park offices by 90,000 square feet.
That may save about $3.5 million annually by 2017 by releasing this rentable space, according to an agency announcement, without reducing staff or operations. The reduction is part of a nationwide consolidation to save the USGS $9 million per year.
The changes will occur in phases. The agency plans to move out of the first floor of Building 3 on the 345 Middlefield Road campus by Sept. 30. The remaining floors will be emptied by September 2017, the announcement said.
The map sales office will move upstairs, with “a significantly reduced inventory,” and the second-floor auditorium will remain as is for at least the next five years. Public access to the office will remain the same, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a short closure during the move in mid-September. A $1 map sale to reduce inventory will be held Aug. 25, the agency said.
“Americans everywhere are seriously examining their budgets and expenses, making decisions about what they can do without in order to maintain the essentials during these tough financial times,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt in a written statement. “The USGS is going through the same process: by consolidating our facilities we can preserve more funds for our primary science mission.”
Before USGS empties out and rents their buildings, they should ask themselves why is their neighbor office building on Linfield (at roundabout) vacant for over 12 months since a major upgrade. Also the new office building at Willow and Middlefield .. why is this still vacant ? Are the rents that high ?
DC McGlynn
PS. I hope the USGS library is untouched .
To present this as a ‘savings’ seems misleading. The ‘savings’ is only a paper savings. The federal government owns this property, yet the General Service Administration charges rent and I heard the rent is going up regardless of the vacant space noted above. So the savings is really only a savings compared to what USGS would paying for the same amount of space.
To me the real news here is that the federal government charges itself outrageous rent and it has real effects on government service. GSA is at the center of this and it might be that only congress can turn things around. USGS or not, this effects all of us. Write your congressional representative.
The office building on Linfield is being rented by GSA (of expensive conference fame), not the USGS. They are the ‘landlord’ of government buildings, and a pretty bad one at that. Why anyone would want to rent from them when they ignore leaking roofs and malfunctioning heating/cooling systems, is beyond me, though maybe they treat their non-governmental tenants better than the government ones.
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