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Spotsylvania Fire and Rescue Station 4 is still vacant |
By DAN TELVOCK
Four months after Spotsylvania County officials held a ribbon-cutting for a $4 million fire and rescue station in Four-Mile Fork, not one fire truck or ambulance has moved in.
Last year, county officials pulled the plug on Manning Construction, leaving a 35-page list of unfinished items--from caulking to the air conditioning and heat not working.
"What really surprises me more than anything else is it is basically the same punch list month after month after month," said Supervisor Benjamin Pitts. "Why has it taken four years to get to the stage we are at now?"
The project bond insurer, Travelers Bond and Financial Products, is now in command. It hired Virginia Building and Structures (VBS) of Chesapeake to finish the job.
But since a Feb. 29 completion date was missed, county officials are considering litigation, and may have to take over the project.
The station has hit many roadblocks in its short history. In February 2007, Manning Construction representatives attributed most of the delays to a subcontractor delivering roof steel that didn't meet specifications. But when problems with Manning persisted, they were fired, said Deputy County Administrator Doug Barnes.
"[Travelers] agreed to take over the project and deliver the project in a timely manner, and it hasn't been done," Barnes said.
He said some of the major items that need to be finished for the station to open are the air conditioning and heating system, alarms, bay doors and ventilation. Barnes said the project is still within budget.
County Administrator Randy Wheeler sent Travelers a letter April 9 that urged the company to finish or "we will seek an alternative resolution to the project." Wheeler sent another letter Wednesday.
"I am disappointed to have not received a response to last week's correspondence, which adds to my already heightened concern that this project will not be completed in a timely manner," he wrote.
A VSB representative at the station Wednesday declined to discuss the project, but said: "I hope that the Board of Supervisors will respect their role and responsibility out here, too."
An update of the project is scheduled for the supervisors' April 22 meeting.
"I want the county administrator to justify why that station is not open," Pitts said.
The station is one of three being built with a 2001 $33 million bond referendum. Pitts said a little more than one penny of the tax rate, or $1.8 million, is paid on the debt for the empty station off Falcon Drive.
"When county taxpayers are paying debt on this building and the building is not even open yet, that doesn't set a very good precedent in my mind," he said.
April Stafford, who lives in the Berkeley subdivision across from the station, said she wants the additional level of security.
"I know the firefighters have been waiting for this, too, because I talk to some of them," said the 34-year-old mother of three. "Every time I talk to them they say it will open at the end of the month."
Mark Kuechler, president of Spotsylvania Volunteer Fire Department, said the station will replace aging facilities on Mine Road and Market Street.
"We've been anticipating utilizing it since last fall and we're very anxious to get into the new facility so we have the ability to upgrade our services to the community," he said.
Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com
