THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 17, 1996 TAG: 9601170461
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
Angry over delays in the construction of a multipurpose community center on Hatteras Island, the Dare County Board of Commissioners said Tuesday that they would fire the project contractor unless the building gets back on schedule.
The $1.2 million Fessenden Center is 30 to 60 days behind schedule, commissioners said. The Buxton facility was to open Feb. 12.
Dare County Manager Terry Wheeler said representatives of Eastern Construction of Greenville told him that bad weather put the project off track. Neither Wheeler nor Commissioner Doug Langford accepted that argument. ``We've had cold weather. But we haven't had bad weather,'' Wheeler said.
Eastern Construction officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
However Joe Lassiter, who is engineering the Fessenden project for the Southern Shores firm Quible and Associates, said builders are trying to catch up. ``I don't want to comment on why they are behind,'' Lassiter said Tuesday afternoon. ``But we are working to get the project back on schedule.''
Langford said he was tired of general contractors taking advantage of local governments. ``If they can't get this project back on schedule,'' said Langford, ``then they should be fired.''
Construction on the Fessenden Center began in May.
When completed, the facility will include a 3,000-square-foot meeting room, tennis courts, a basketball court, an outdoor walkway and pier. In all, the center will cover 12,619 square feet.
Locals on Hatteras Island have been working since 1988 to get a community center. In October 1994, the Dare County Board of Commissioners approved funding for the project.
The center is named for Reginald A. Fessenden, ``the father of wireless communications,'' who made the first wireless broadcast of musical notes from an antenna near Buxton in 1902. by CNB