Surry County Board of Commissioners on Monday took up the issue of final charges on the Health & Nutrition Center renovation project which was recently completed, with no resolution on how to handle more than $30,000 in new charges. The offices of the Health Department moved from temporary quarters into the complete space last month.
“We have five items to close out the project. I know on April 9 we thought we were closed; we were not closed,” Tony Chilton of North State Design Group said. “Those five items add up to $32,438, which add that to the previous $167,490 (in change orders) and that puts us at 4.9% above our initial contract amount. That is still below what I projected the project to be at.”
An example of an oversight was for a bottle filling station which Chilton said was overlooked and was caught after the original bid process but was not addressed properly. The filling station was on the architectural drawing but not the electrical and plumbing schematics, so it was missed and requires a change order of $2,639.
When the project began he was unsure the total cost of all required signage and put a placeholder of $6,000 for that line item; he said his estimate was simply too low for this item. “One of the problems with establishing some of these budget numbers is that you can’t reach out into the marketplace and get an estimate from the tradespeople to get a more realistic number,” he explained.
A set of fire shutters was installed at the firewall in the main lobby but were installed as manual as opposed to electrically operated shutters. Chilton said this too was a mistake and that electric shutters are needed “especially from a human resources point of view as there is a liability issue for people trying to raise and lower manual shutters.”
Another $4,500 was added for faucet sensors in public restrooms. Chilton said this was for sanitation, “You have paddle controls in the exam room sinks, but in the other rest rooms you don’t want to wash your hands and then have to touch the faucet again after you’ve sanitized.”
Commissioner Larry Johnson and Vice Chairman Mark Marion both expressed some level of concern that there were more charges for the renovation project.
“It’s just hard for me to pay for someone else’s oversight. We need to mediate or do something else besides just saying, and I only have one vote here, we’re just gonna’ approved $32,000 worth of stuff and be done,” Johnson said.
“I feel we need some more discussion because it feels to me there’s been some oversights or mistakes, they didn’t look at the drawings or they weren’t available or whatever. That’s not our problem the way I see it and I am speaking just for me, Larry Johnson as a commissioner, even though I am on the health board — but they had nothing to do with the design or anything like that.”
“It seems to me this project just keeps on giving,” Marion said. “I am in agreement with Commissioner Johnson, there’s some mix ups here where someone didn’t look at the drawings and we’re left holding the bag. I think there should be some negotiation with North State or Coram or whomever.”
Chilton told the board some of the problems with these oversights came from trying to stay on the deadline. “One of the things we were battling against was that construction inflation was running on a project this size, of about $80,000 a month in increased costs. So, we opted to push to make sure we stayed on the date and (oversights were) one of the consequences of that.”
Johnson was not keen to wholly accept his answer that implied some oversights or mistakes were to be expected in order for the project to stay on-time. “I don’t think timing has nothing to do with it, staying on time, in my opinion.”
Chairman Van Tucker reflected, “I’ve never built anything that I stayed under 5% over” the proposed budget.
Commissioner Eddie Harris said his was more a nuanced view on the matter. “I understand the project, probably not as well as Commissioner Johnson, but I do understand the problem of timelines and inflationary costs on materials and supplies and trying to mesh the timelines with that to get the project completed. Then you throw in all the architectural stuff into it, and it was a hard thing to put together.”
“With all due respect, if this level of scrutiny was put into the $40 million jail we just built I can promise you that there would be no prisoners over there today, we’d be in a court of law, and that thing would still not be open. I just want to get to the finish line, I’m ready to accept their offer and move on,” Harris said.
“I’m not against the change orders but people messed up and we’re liable for their mess up. I think the ones responsible for the mess up should be negotiated with instead of just saying, ‘That’s OK. We know you messed up but we’re gonna’ pay you anyhow,’” Marion contributed to this discussion.
“Looks like we’re a little ways from total agreement on whether we rub a little salve on our losses and move on,” Tucker said noting that Commissioner Bill Goins was not in attendance. “We are one man down tonight so it will be interesting to see if we can come to a decision.”
Harris moved to accept the change orders and complete the project but was met with a pregnant pause as the motion awaited a second. Tucker said, “I got a feeling I know a couple of places I am not going to find it (a second) and I know math, at least two plus two equals four.”
The vote was split 2 — 2 with Johnson and Marion voting against approving the change orders. Chilton retreated to the gallery and the board moved on to their next agenda item with no clear path to resolution established by which to negotiate and finalize payments on the Health Department renovation.
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