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Recreation center delays continue
J.R. McNally photo
A construction crew works on the swimming pool at the new Statesville Recreation Center complex.
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Published: December 3, 2008
Four and a half months ago the news coming from the blueprint readers and dirt-movers at Statesville's new recreation center project sounded too good to believe.
And it was.
In mid-July the project manager, Jimmy Sweet, said work on the approximately $8 million facility, situated off Simonton Road, was 50 to 60 percent done.
At the time, Sweet and other project leaders were standing just inside what will be the rec center's main entrance with top staff members of the city's recreation department.
Metal studs were all that had been erected of the building's front wall. Water from a relatively rare but recent rain had left puddles in small recesses of the unfinished floor.
"But once we get it closed up," Sweet added, "it's going to start moving real quick."
On the day Sweet said that, July 14, he was committed to an October completion date.
Things have changed since then. Now January seems more likely as a month of completion, with the center opening about a month after that.
It's hard to pin down exactly why a full three months have been added to the construction time.
Ernie Sills, of the Hickory firm CBSA Architects Inc., said there have been some periods of "unusual weather" in the past few months but he would not fully offer that as a reason.
"I really don't know what has caused the delays," he said. "But I wouldn't call this uncommon either. I think it's coming along OK."
But the project is clearly starting to wear on some city leaders.
At Monday's city council meeting, talk bordered on flat-out indignation when discussion turned to the ceilings in some of the rec center's rooms.
It was the second time questions about how to finish the ceilings in a small dance room and an aerobics room were brought to the council.
At the Nov. 3 meeting, the council voted leave the ceilings as they are, which is essentially unfinished.
So the matter was was revisited and the result was the same.
The recommended changes would have cost just more than $20,000 but, in a split vote, the council voted against spending more money on the rec center than has already been spent.
Councilman Michael Johnson said the job has been plagued by a number of small change orders that, he feels, should have been addressed in the planning stage.
"I believe this is a blatant error on the architect's part," Johnson said in arguing against the ceiling alterations. "And I think he should eat it."
Given the nation's current financial situation, Councilman C.O. "Jap" Johnson said the funding stream for the project should dry up.
"I think this is a waste of taxpayers' money, especially in these hard times," he said. "We're going to have to raise taxes in July because we didn't cut back on spending."
But Councilman Flake Huggins said the amount is negligible when compared to cost of the project.
"We're talking about a $7- to $8-million-dollar project and this is only $20,000 that we already have in the contingency fund," he said.
Mayor Costi Kutteh later said that there is still almost $600,000 in that fund. If if that amount remains unspent, the project would be that much under budget.
And those savings could grow even more by virtue of something called liquidated damages.
City Manager Rob Hites said the deal the city signed with the general contractor, Randolph and Son Builders, called for the project to be completed by Oct. 3. For every day after that for which a substantial reason cannot be supplied, the company could be charged $1,000.
But, Hites added, that is not normally the case.
"It is always a negotiated issue," he said. "We'll stick to our guns, they'll stick to theirs and the attorneys will sort it all out in the end."
For the man who spent years pushing for the new recreation center, the numbers are not what this is all about.
John Bullard, director of the city's recreation department, spent more than a decade convincing the city of the need for a central and state-of-the-art facility.
When the center finally does open, Bullard said he will be vindicated by what the center brings to the city.
"My staff is chomping at the bit to get started," Bullard said. "But we know it's going to be finished soon. And when it is, the one thing I know is that it's going to be gorgeous. That's what we should be focusing on; how good this is going to be for our citizens."
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