Schools hire new contractor to raze McKinley

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Middletown City Schools hired a new contractor Thursday to complete the demolition of McKinley Elementary School.

Acme Demolition will finish razing the school at 1210 S. Verity Parkway. The district had a contract with Jergens Bales Contractors Inc. to demolish McKinley and Wilson Elementary Schools and perform site work at both.

The contract with Jergens Bales stated that demolition of both schools should have been finished Monday.

When the contractor did not reach that milestone, Middletown's construction management firm, Quandel/ProjDel, sent Jergens Bales a letter giving the contractors three days to outline a plan and resources to recover lost time, and to provide a sufficient workforce to do so.

Nathan Minnich-Weber, a project engineer for Quandel/ProjDel, said Jergens Bales did not provide a plan. He said the contractor did provide a workforce, but it was not sufficient to adequately staff the project.

Frank Chapman, Middletown's business manager, said Acme will start work Monday. Jergens Bales still will perform the site work, and will finish razing Wilson.

Minnich-Weber told the Board of Education on Wednesday night that demolition was about 90 percent complete at Wilson and 10 percent complete at McKinley. He also told the board of the intent to hire a new contractor.

"What does that do to the cost?" board member John Venturella asked.

"Supposedly nothing," said Dennis Phillips, senior project manager. He said the value of Acme's contract will be subtracted from the original contract with Jergens Bales.

The school district had hired Nelson Stark Co. last month to perform site work at Creekview Elementary School.

"They are on schedule, if not ahead of schedule at this point," Minnich-Weber told the board.

Phillips said Thursday that the delays in demolition at McKinley and Wilson are not a major problem.

"We don't bid the (new) buildings until next spring," he said.

McKinley and Wilson are being torn down so that new schools can be built on their sites.

The school that will replace Creekview will be built near the current school. jroberts@coxohio.com (513) 705-2840