THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 10, 1996 TAG: 9605100546
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BARCO LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Officials appear to have averted a severe setback to construction of a new high school, caused when a subcontractor walked off the job.
The project manager was arrested during the dispute, when he tried to keep the workers from leaving.
In another school-related matter, a county school official said a preferred site has been found for a new elementary school in Moyock. But he declined to discuss details Thursday.
In a meeting Thursday to discuss the status of the high school construction, an official from Trafalgar House Construction said fireproofers should be back to work next week after they left abruptly, last week, in a contract dispute.
Trafalgar House is the general contractor hired by the Currituck County school system to build the $16 million, 165,000-square-foot high school in Barco.
John Flynn, Trafalgar's regional manager in Raleigh, told the Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education Thursday morning: ``It's an issue between Trafalgar House and its subcontractor. It's strictly a business issue.''
The project already was about 60 days behind schedule, mainly because of weather, when Construction Coatings Inc. of Florida quit at a critical point in the construction.
The fireproofing company, a second-tier subcontractor, had apparently misunderstood the scope of the job and finished only a third of the building before leaving last week, said Skip Sanders, the county schools' facilities director.
Construction Coatings had brought enough material to cover the building, but not at the thickness specified in the contract, Sanders said.
The company was a subcontractor of Standard Insulation Corp. of Charlotte, which had been hired by Trafalgar House.
Next to the roofing, fireproofing is the most critical part of the current production schedule, officials said.
When Construction Coatings announced it was returning to Florida for another job, Project Manager Ron Montecalvo refused to let them leave with their equipment and was arrested for withholding personal property. Montecalvo was detained briefly at the Currituck County Sheriff's Department and is scheduled to appear on May 31 in District Court.
Montecalvo is Trafalgar House's fourth project manager in Currituck. He came to work here last month after what the chief architect, C. Michael Ross, called the ``sudden departure'' of project manager No. 3.
On Monday, county commissioners had voiced concern about failing to be notified immediately of recent events that could have badly hurt the project.
Memos written Friday regarding problems at the construction site had not reached commissioners by their regular meeting Monday night.
``We need to be kept abreast of the situation as it arises,'' Commissioner Owen Etheridge had said Monday.
But that subject was not brought up at Thursday's joint meeting.
Instead, commissioners revisited two citizen concerns - a new school promised in Jarvisburg and the design of the one now under construction in Barco.
Commissioner Paul O'Neal, who represents the Poplar Branch Township, said a ``very simmering situation'' remains in the southern end of the county. He said of his constituents, ``They feel like they were shortchanged because they do not have a projected time frame for their school.''
Voter-approved bonds being used to build the Barco high school also were supposed to build an elementary school in Jarvisburg.
But soaring construction costs forced the entire package to be spent on the Barco school, the cornerstone of a countywide school realignment program. A new elementary school in Moyock was dropped from the bond package to better ensure voter approval in 1993.
Now, however, a school in Moyock is expected to be built before one inJarvisburg because of expected increases in population in the northern end of the county.
As for the Barco high school, Commissioner Gene Gregory said that, while campaigning for Tuesday's Democratic primary, he got an earful about the appearance of the school, now about 62 percent complete.
``People are upset with how this cut-up-looking mess looks,'' said Gregory, who won the primary.
School board Chairwoman Mary Ellen Maxwell responded, ``I think it's going to be a beautiful building.''
Ronnie Capps, the schools superintendent, also defended the design, which was based on input from the community. by CNB