The Central Fire Station rehabilitation appears stalled.
Frankly, it has been stalled and then started, like a car with a gummed up fuel line since it began more than a year ago.
Fire Chief Anthony Carli bemoaned the situation before the city council Monday night.
He explained how the contractor has yet to keep to a timeline.
He is hoping the $2 million project will be completed by April when it was supposed to be completed last October.
Carli appeared before the city council to speak of the necessity for an additional $141,000 to complete the project.
The city council approved the money but what was not explained fully by the chief is how a contractor has held the city hostage for months and months redoing what is arguably the single most important structure in the city – the Central Fire Station.
Not only has the road next to the fire station been closed, but the front bays of the station itself has been wrapped in a canvas and all but inaccessible for more than a year.
At the first blush of a contractor not meeting his or her obligation to finish on time as planned, the contractor should be pulled into city hall for a talking to.
If that doesn’t work, the contractor should be taken to court.
The chief said the contractor will be charged liquidated damages when everything is complete.
This is another disaster waiting to happen.
A contractor who can’t keep to his contract and meet his legal obligations is very unlikely to be able to pay liquidated damages for missing the completion date by so many months.
The fire chief is not a clerk of the works or a contracting specialist. He is the fire chief.
Some one from the city hall building department qualified to keep
contractors on their toes should have overseen this rehab of Central Station.
It was an expensive and time consuming waste without city hall oversight.
This should not be allowed to happen again.