Clearfield County approves appeal in dismissed $3.8 million complaint

CLEARFIELD COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) – During the Clearfield County Commissioners regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27, it was approved that the county would file an appeal in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania after the dismissal of a complaint.

The complaint is from unfinished construction at the county jail. In July 2021, the county entered into a contract with ABM Building Solutions (ABM) to oversee a $9 million jail renovation project. During the preparatory work, ABM discovered the jail’s roof was not connected to the masonry walls from a missing bond beam.

“We had no way of knowing that this beam was missing from the jail until we had actually broken the structure apart as part of a remodeling project,” Commissioner Tim Winters said.

The complaint is from January of 2023 after the county filed a grievance for over $3.8 million against TranSystems, successor to L. Robert Kimball and Associates, Inc., as well as contractors Leonards S. Fiore Inc. and Showwalter Masonry, Inc.

The jail finished construction in early 1989, however, the roof up until the completion of the renovations was “floating” on top of the one-story building. In order to properly remedy the defect the county was required to spend the $3.9 million, which is more than they expected.

“In effect, what happened was we had a $9 million project get turned into almost a $13 million project because of the fact that we had to make the necessary repairs to secure the jail roof to the jail,” Commissioner John Sobel said.

Sobel added that the unfinished roof caused much more damage throughout the years.

“That’s a significant issue, it caused a significant amount of water damage over the years in the jail,” Sobel said.  “We do believe the jail has been safe, we can’t say it was 100% safe because it wasn’t secured to the top of the jail.”

The county is now looking to get funds back not only for the county but also the taxpayers.

“This settlement will potentially let us recover part of the money that we had to spend in excess of the original project,” Winters said.

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“We feel we’re duty-bound because this is a great cost to the taxpayers. And the fact that the matter was not completed as it should have been so many years ago, has added so many additional dollars to the cost,” Sobel said.

Commissioners say that the appeal will not cost the county any additional fees.

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