BY RICHELLE THOMPSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SPRINGBORO -- The contractor in charge of building a $23.5 million high school is suing its employer -- Springboro Community City School District -- and the architect that designed the facility for nearly $2 million. All groups involved say the lawsuit, filed June 30 in Mercer County, will not affect completion of the high school. Students still will attend classes on opening day, Sept. 8, at the new facility on Ohio 741.
The lawsuit "appears to be purely a contract issue," said Stephen Bartalo, the school district's director of education services and spokesman on the allegations. "We feel that we've followed the contract and the parties named in the suit have followed the contract."
In the lawsuit, Dugan & Meyers Construction Co., the Cincinnati-based contractor, contends the school district and architectural firm, Fanning - Howey Associates Inc. in Celina, Ohio, failed to meet their contractual obligations. Dugan & Meyers alleges:
The district failed to pay for at least $400,000 of excavation work, said Mike Currie, a Columbus attorney for Dugan & Meyers. The original geologic report said the ground contained only limestone fragments. When subcontractor Dinneen Excavating began digging, it discovered layers of limestone in the area under the proposed building, which increased the amount of time and cost of the project, Mr. Currie said.
The architectural plans for the building gave the wrong elevations and grades for the sanitary sewer system, Mr. Currie said. As a result, the contractor had to correct the problems while building the facility. The firm has paid $100,000 to correct the errors, Mr. Currie said. Still, according to court documents, the architecture firm "failed to correct errors and omissions in a timely or appropriate manner, failed to issue change orders (in a manner) timely or otherwise appropriate under the contract."
The school district withheld $437,000 in its June payment to Dugan & Meyers because the sanitary sewer system did not pass a light test, Mr. Currie said. But Dugan & Meyers contend a light test -- checking to see whether light can be seen from both ends of a sewer pipe -- is inappropriate for the type of materials used in the system and shouldn't be used to determine payment.
Randy Sprunger, Fanning - Howey's project manager, said the lawsuit has no basis. Still, he said, the three groups will "continue to communicate.
"What we're all focusing on is getting the school done for the first day," Mr. Sprunger said. "The lawsuit isn't interfering with our ability to work together."
Mr. Currie said the lawsuit came after more than a year of futile negotiations and failed mediation in late June.
Construction on the two-story, 217,000-square-foot facility is nearing the final stages, such as carpet laying and locker installation, Mr. Bartalo said.
A new school was needed to handle the area's growth of about 120 to 150 new students each year, Mr. Bartalo said. The school is built to handle about 1,200 students, although common areas such as the gymnasium and auditorium can accommodate up to 1,600, he said. The present high school has about 800 students.
