With still no end date in sight for the Tisbury Emergency Services Facility building, now long overdue for completion, one town selectman expressed open frustration Tuesday and called for a new strategy.
“We have to have an end game here,” said selectman Tristan Israel. “Maybe the end game at this point should be, this is the end, we are going to hire our own people to do it [complete the building], and we are going to go to court and charge [the contractor] back with the difference.”
The $7.38 million, 18,000-square-foot building on West Spring street across from the elementary school was approved by voters three years ago and was due to be completed last summer. Construction flaws identified more than a year ago included a misaligned foundation, buckled steel supports and drainage issues. The general contractor, Seaver Construction of Woburn, has already paid the town more than $18,000 in penalties to cover damages and project delays. The latest move-in date for the building was July 1. The building will house the town fire, ambulance and emergency management staff and equipment.
The discussion at the selectmen’s meeting Tuesday came following a report from building committee chairman Joseph Tierney on a punch list of items, finished and unfinished. Mr. Tierney said wood shingles have been replaced on the front of the building, and he expects to receive a report next week from the roof inspector. There are still no results back from an asphalt test done on the paved aprons around the building. The asphalt work was done by White Brothers-Lynch Corporation.
Responding to Mr. Israel’s idea, town administrator John Bugbee said bringing in new contractors at this stage could cause other problems, including with the warranties on the roof of the building.
“I hear you, but we’ve been hearing this for two years,” Mr. Israel replied. “We can’t go through the winter, which it looks like we are heading into, with this stuff going on. If there are warranty issues, maybe the problem is that they did not do the right work to begin with.”
Mr. Bugbee said he will explore the possibility of hiring new contractors.
And Mr. Israel was not the only one unhappy about the ESF building this week. Clifford and Leah Dorr, whose property abuts the building, attended the selectmen’s meeting to complain that a promised landscape plan to screen the building from their residential property was never completed. “When you come out of our door or our driveway, the full view of the ESF building is essentially our view, and you feel like you’re right on display,” said Mrs. Dorr. “We were told that plantings would be put in to help screen our property, and there was a little bit of landscaping that happened. However, it was done in a very haphazard way.”
She added: “You don’t feel like there’s a lot of care and effort in restoring the property line.”
The Dorrs said they would be happy to do the landscaping work themselves if the town would supply the plants and other materials. Mrs. Dorr estimated the cost at $6,000.
Selectman and board chairman Jeffrey Kristal apologized for the problems and promised the board will review the proposal and have an answer for the Dorrs in a week.
This article appears in July 24, 2012.
$6000.00 for a few bushes to hide a building from view? sounds like the Dorr’s are no better than the contractors in taking advantage of the town.
Well Larry,
The way this article was written and lack of detail it provides does make it unclear who is receiving money and why. In reality, all money in the landscaping proposal goes to on-island vendors to provide the plants (trees & bushes), mulch, top soil and seed to finish the area the way we were promised at the beginning of this process. Almost all trees/shrubs were removed from along the property line when this project started. Over 2 years ago the area were supposed to be planted and the driveway restored. It was put off again this past spring because bids to contractors were too high. We are simply tired of waiting and have very little faith that anybody else is going to step up and fix this.
We are willing to put in all the labor to regrade the area (never done), to plant all the trees, mulch, water, and maintain the area with no cost to the taxpayers. We will not be accepting a singe cent.
In addition, what this article doesn’t report is that if a contractor is hired to do the work, it would cost two to three times more because of labor and other fees. By volunteering to put in the plants and water them we are saving the town money and ensuring that the plants will get maintained and not need to be replanted due to lack of care. All of the money to landscape was already budgeted in the cost of the project, so this is not new money that needs to be allocated.
Feel free to watch the entire exchange on the local TV channel if you have any other questions about our integrity or honesty. Believe me, you would be doing the same if a three story building with 20+ windows and a parking lot of 32 cars was build adjacent to your property.
Sincerely, Leah Dorr