Page 8 The Dispatch/Maryland Coast Dispatch December 20, 2013 CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR hanty! S e Styl . . ‘It’s A Shame It Had To Get To This Point’ FROM PAGE 6 both act as a form of insurance. A payment bond guarantees the subcontractors are paid and the performance bond guarantees the project gets built. If a project’s performance bond is called, the contractor is taken off the project, and the bond company brings in its own construction crew to finish the project. The town is under a $938,000 contract with Black Diamond Builders to construct the Caroline Street Comfort Station. The project is being funded by a bond that was issued at the same time as the bond to reconstruct the Boardwalk, which was completed last spring. The old underground restrooms at Caroline Street and the Boardwalk were demolished last December and the construction of the new, state-of-the-art facility complete with a performing arts stage began shortly thereafter with a projected finish date in May before the arrival of the summer season. However, a wet spring and some poor decisions slowed the construction process, and it became apparent the new facility would not be completed for the start of the summer season. When poor weather continued through much of June, further slowing the construction of the new facility, the city contracted with a private waste disposal company to provide temporary restrooms for Boardwalk visitors on a site immediately adjacent to the construction site and just behind the Fireman’s Memorial on North Division Street. At the end of August, the new Caroline Street Comfort Station was given a month to be completed. At that time the contractor had already entered into its penalty phase for missing the deadline. On Tuesday, McGean reported about 95 percent of the comfort station has been completed but the last 5 percent has been stalled over the past couple of months. “The two restrooms have basically been usable and pretty much substantially complete since Oct. 18 but … all this work was still left to be done since October and it still wasn’t, so my patience finally reached its end,” McGean said. McGean gave the contractor a check list of items to be completed by Friday that included foot showers installed, completion of the electrical closet on the stage, dressing room completed, railings installed and signage on the building. As of Tuesday, the foot showers and electrical closet were completed and the contractor was on site installing the railings and signage, and working on the dressing room. “I am optimistic by Friday they will have those things completed,” McGean said. Once the project is substantially completed, all there is left is the “punch list”, such as paint touch ups and other minor adjustments. “They will have only so many days to complete the punch list while we are still withholding about $100,000 in payment, and then there is the whole liquidated damages issue,” McGean said. McGean explained if a project is not completed within the timeframe stated in the contract liquidated damages is assessed at $1,000 every day the project is delayed. “The purpose of that charge is to cover our expenses to the town that have occurred as a result of the delay in the project, such as the porta-potty rentals, the additional time to pay the architect, potential lost revenue, for example we lost the use of the stage and were not able to put on any acts during the summer,” McGean said. “It is meant to keep the town whole, and they [Black Diamond] are in excess of about $100,000 right now.” In McGean’s career, he has never gotten to the point of coming close to pulling a project’s performance bond. “It is a shame it had to get to this point,” McGean said. “Calling in the bond company is a last resort. Usually once that happens it is difficult for a contractor to get bonded again, which makes it difficult for them to work on any sort of large project. Hopefully, they have gotten the message. I am certainly seeing more progress in this past week than I have seen in the last two months.” JOIN US FOR A FUN FILLED WEEK WITH GREAT FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS! Will Re-Open Dec. 27-Jan. 1 Call Nantuckets At 302-539-2607 For Reservations & Gift Cards! 54 FENWICK ISLAND 302-436-2305 www.Twiningsshanty.com