1996-HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE

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HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING COMMITTEE MONDAY, MARCH 4 , 1996 HIGH SCHOOL SITE Present: Paul Griffin, Merry Sue Ahlgren, Joe Polito, Bill Martiros, Peter Dinizio, Janice Mills, Steve Greelish Ian Aitchison, Tom Wren, Jim Byrne , Joel Seeley, John Williams, Mike Pietrowski , Dr. Lincoln DeMoura MINUTES ** Merry Sue made a motion to approve the minutes of February 12 , 1996. Joe seconded the motion. All members were in favor 5-0.** Paul discussed with the Committee what transpired at Friday' s meeting with the bonding company and their attorney, Stone and their attorney and the town with town counsel . He does not think we walked away with too much. We have all the risk and they have 2 more weeks . Stone must submit a new schedule by Friday. The President of Stone promised Jim Vacarro by the middle of this month they would load up the job with men and overtime. Merry Sue asked, if we don' t pull the bond now, but in 1 month decide to , do we have to start the whole process again? Paul said no, but we have lost 1 month. Joe said in 2 weeks this Committee can say yes or no to continuing the default process? Paul said if everyone agrees. There may be grey areas. What if Stone loads up the job and we see corrections to the defects? Maybe we' ll give them more leeway. Joe has not seen much progress from last week to this week. They could have gotten a lot done but is doesn't seem to be happening. What else can we do? Paul said there is always a risk to pulling the bond prematurely. He is going to investigate a job that Stone is working on, Andover High School , that is having very similar problems. He is going to talk with their Clerk. If we cancel Stone 's contract, they will go immediately to court. We can allow it to go to arbitration but if it does not , it could be a delay of a few months. If we let Stone go to the end of the job, then find out they are not going to make the completion date , we have to provide housing for the students and then seek to recover the costs - sue them. The bonding company failed to step in. They feel Stone has somewhat of a case . We feel the bonding co. had not read the case file in detail . He asked for a weekly update from SMMA. He obviously did not read the letter from Pat Costello (town counsel ) . Liberty sent a letter to Pat Costello almost exactly the same as Stone' s attorney' s letter. Liberty did not even mention the clause in the contract in dispute , he had not read the contract. 1