THIS ARTICLE ABOUT THE SAME COMPANY'S WORK ON THE NEW ADAMS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL COURTESY THE KINGSPORT TIMES-NEWS IS SIGNIFICANT, BECAUSE IT LEAVES YOU WONDERING IF THE COMPANY'S WORK ON OUR HISTORIC BUILDING WILL BE FINISHED ON TIME, AND UP-TO-PAR.
J.A. Street Construction awarded contract for the construction of a 9,000-square-foot addition at the V.O. Dobbins Community Center.
By MATTHEW LANE
mlane@timesnews.net
KINGSPORT — A Blountville-based contractor, who is three months behind in completing the final work at John Adams Elementary School, received a $1 million contract with the city of Kingsport on Tuesday for an addition at the V.O. Dobbins Community Center.
Last month the Kingsport Board of Education learned the final “punch list” items for John Adams had not been completed by J.A. Street Construction and that around $200,000 for this work had not been paid to the company. School officials also said upwards of $150,000 could be designated liquidated damages for not meeting the deadlines to fix the “punch list” items.
A “punch list” is generated when a construction project is nearly complete and generally includes work of a minor nature. In the case of John Adams, there were around 320 items on the punch list as of July 31.
Last month, Jim Street, founder of the co mpany, told city and school officials everything would be worked out and the school system would not have to withhold any money. During a work session Monday afternoon, school officials and Street came before the Kingsport Board of Mayor and Aldermen to apprise them of the situation.
Rick Russell, Kingsport City Schools’ liaison on the John Adams project, said the new school was substantially completed July 29, but that work on the first punch list started a month early and finished June 30. The second punch list was done by July 30.
“The contract spelled out (J.A. Street) had 30 days after substantial completion (to finish the punch list items),” Russell said, noting the work should have been done by August 30. “As of today they’re still not finished with the punch list even though the bulk of work has been done.
“They’ve had four to five months to execute the punch list and are three months behind in completing it.”
Mayor Dennis Phillips asked if there was anything on the list harmful to students and other people.
Russell said one of the exit sign switches is wired to a light switch, which if turned off, also turns off the exit switch sign.
“Other (items) have to do with putting in light fixtures, lenses on fixtures, making lights work that do not, and there’s a hole in the ground where the exterior sign was supposed to go,” Russell said. “The biggest problem to the school system is the controls to the mechanical system. That has not been fully operational, therefore utility costs have been much higher than expected.”
Russell said an odor problem comes and goes within the building, something that is still trying to be tracked down.
Street and KCS officials met on Monday and according to Street most of the items on the punch list would be completed this week. Both sides have agreed that some items will be taken care of during the winter break.
As of Oct. 30, approximately 97 percent of the punch list items were complete, Street said. Subcontractors are expected to perform the bulk of the punch list work.
“There are a few items left and I assure you these items will be taken care of in the next day or two, in a very timely manner,” Street said.
Russell said the 320 items on the punch list was relatively small for a project such as John Adams, which cost $14 million to build.
Regardless of the unfinished punch list for John Adams, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously approved a $1 million contract with J.A. Street Construction on Tuesday for the construction of a 9,000-square-foot addition at the V.O. Dobbins Community Center.
Earlier this year, Kingsport began a $5.9 million renovation and expansion project at V.O. Dobbins — renovating 46,000 square feet of the facility, adding a new gymnasium and a three-story nonprofit wing. All three new additions are under roof and Kingsport expects the project to be completed by July 2010.
The HOPE VI project calls for a community room to be built in the Riverview community, and city officials chose to add it to the VO Dobbins
J.A. Street Construction has handled more than $40 million in high-profile, major projects for the Model City over the past three years, including John Adams Elementary School, the Kingsport Center for Higher Education, the executive conference wing addition at MeadowView, the V.O. Dobbins project and the Regional Center for Health Professions.
