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Thursday, December 07, 2006

Ind. Courts - More money needed to complete Greene County courthouse

Apparently all is not well with the Greene County courthouse project, despite a number of previous positive reports (listed here). Nick Schneider of the Greene County Daily World reports:

The Greene County Commissioners voted Tuesday morning to request that the Greene County Council consider approving an additional $4 million in bond anticipation notes in order to provide funds to complete the courthouse renovation project.

The county council - which met in a closed door executive session with the county's litigation team from Indianapolis on Monday - is expected to act on the commissioner's request at its next meeting slated for 4 p.m. on Dec. 18.

If approved by the county council, the county would issue additional bond anticipation notes - known as BANS. This form of financing is like a line of credit, where only the amount needed is borrowed. The county will pay only interest on what is borrowed until the civil suit litigation currently pending against the design team, general contractor and related parties is resolved. The money received in litigation will be used to re-pay the BANS, according to board of commissioner's attorney Marilyn Hartman.

The $4 million requested will be used to fund approximately $2 million in additional construction costs, $1.2 million in additional engineering, project management and related construction costs; and $800,000 in litigation expenses. * * *

In the view of Board of Commissioner's President, Beard, the county is left with few options except to proceed with the renovation project as planned and hope a favorable court ruling is received. Work on the new addition has been completed and a variety of offices were permanently moved into the building and others were also temporarily moved to the new structure while work commenced on the renovation of the old courthouse in early October.

“The county really doesn't have many options. Until the project is finished, we won't be able to show a judge or jury what our damages are. Although we expect to recover our costs, none of the defendants are going to pay us in advance, so we are stuck,” Beard stated. “It's one of those things that is unfortunate, but this is our only option.”

He continued, “I want people to understand that this is a situation that we have to get it (the project) finished in order to determine what we are trying to accuse other people of being at fault of. Our lawsuit is now approaching $6.5 million, so it's unfortunate, but in order to get this, we have to get this building finished.” * * *

The $4 million additional cost will drive the overall cost of the project up to $16.5 million - $6.5 million above the original contract issued four years ago. However, a pending civil lawsuit filed in Owen Circuit Court, will attempt to recover the $6.5 million cost overrun because of numerous delays, engineering flaws, additional construction costs and litigation costs. * * *

Named in the suit filed by the Greene County Commissioners and the Greene County Building Corporation are the project's original design team of DLZ of Indiana and United Consulting Engineers - both based in Indianapolis; the general contractors - Weddle Brothers Construction Company based in Bloomington; Alt & Witzig Engineering Inc., of Carmel; Wayne A. Truex - a DLZ employee, who was the original engineer of record for the project; and Craig Burgess, the original architect of record for the project.

A trial by jury in Spencer has been set for Dec. 5, 2007. The court has ordered the case to go to mediation and the parties have agreed to finish those proceedings before Sept. 1, 2007, according to Hartman.

Greene County is represented in the case by Indianapolis law firm of Drewry Simmons and Vornehm LLP.

The story includes many more details.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 7, 2006 08:13 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts