Date: Fri 14-Nov-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Booth-Library-Crumb-Cascella

Full Text:

Town Fires Library Contractor

(with photos)

BY STEVE BIGHAM

You can close the book on the man in charge of getting the Cyrenius Booth

Library project finished. The Board of Selectmen fired him and his company

earlier this week.

First Selectman Bob Cascella now wants to bring in a new contractor to see

that the ill-fated $4.1-million project finally gets done. He declined to

release the name of the firm, which the Legislative Council would have to

approve at its meeting next week (See related story).

The library project was supposed to be done more than five months ago, and it

does not look as if it will be done any time soon. The opening-day festivities

planned for later this month will likely be postponed. Now, the town is

shooting for a grand reopening sometime before Christmas.

Originally slated to be finished in June, the project has been about 95

percent complete for the past three months. Workers had stopped showing up at

the site, and things were simply not getting done.

On Monday, the Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to terminate its

relationship with Keith Crumb and Building Technologies, Inc, of Prospect

(BTI). It also voted to hire a second un-named general contractor, bypassing

the bidding process, which is required under the town charter. Officials from

the new firm were reportedly on the site earlier this week determining what

still needed to be done.

The selectmen admit that changing general contractors will only add further

complications, especially since the project is about 98 percent complete.

However, according to First Selectman Bob Cascella, the board had no other

options.

"We've been jerking around with this for months," he said Tuesday. "If we

hadn't terminated these guys, we'd continue to be sitting on empty promises."

Either way, the first selectman said, the library was not going to be

completed by November 22, the day the Booth Library board of trustees had

scheduled the grand-opening gala.

Selectman Jim Mooney and Gary Fetzer both agreed with the first selectman,

saying new blood needs to come in to wrap things up. Men are not on site and

that responsibility lies with the general contractor, they said.

Very little work is left to do at the library, mostly paint touch-ups, leaky

pipe repairs and a balancing of the heating system. In fact, the building

received a 30-day temporary certificate of occupancy October 17, allowing the

library staff to begin putting books on shelves. However, little to no

progress has been made to finish up these small jobs since early October,

mainly because there have not been any workers on the job. Mr Crumb said he

has had trouble getting men to work because he has not received any money from

the town for four months.

The project's original completion date was June 1 but was eventually pushed

back to July. Then after the town threatened to fire BTI, Mr Crumb said he

would be done in August. August came and went, so did a Labor Day deadline.

From there, Mr Crumb stopped making promises. In fact, Monday night he could

not even guarantee ever getting the job done.

Mr Cascella sent an October 31 letter to architect Bruce Tuthill stating that

BTI would be terminated if the work was not completed by November 6. That date

has come and gone.

Mr Cascella said he decided that a change needed to be made last week after

receiving a five-page list of things still needed to be done by Clerk of the

Works Ed Callo.

"I thought to myself, `This looks like last month's list,'" Mr Cascella

recalled, "so I told Ed that I wanted this week's list. He said, `It's the

same list.' That's when I decided something had to be done."

On Monday, Mr Callo said the project only had about a week's worth of work

left if there were contractors on the site. However, "the contractors are

looking for money. They haven't gotten paid, so they leave and go to a job

that pays," he said.

At Monday's meeting, Mr Crumb explained how he had not been paid by the town

in four months. He said his contractors have since received 35 construction

change directives, added work.

Mr Cascella said the town only recently received an invoice from BTI for

$177,000, which the town has agreed to pay.

"Part of the agreement was that you would receive no money until the job was

done," Mr Cascella said. "The Town of Newtown is not a social-service agency.

The Town of Newtown is a consumer."

Mr Crumb called the relationship with the town a "marriage gone bad." He said

the Newtown government has been difficult to work for from the start, and he

promised he wouldn't go away quietly, either.

"I'll be in contact with my attorney tomorrow morning," said Mr Crumb, who

admitted his surprise at the town's decision. "There will be several lawsuits

filed."

The general contractor said he has been planning a lawsuit against the town

all along for problems he has encountered since arriving on the project in

March, 1996. First off, Mr Crumb said he had to deal with the surprise

discovery of lead and asbestos in the library's existing building. BTI ended

up being fined by OSHA

for continuing to work in the health-risk areas. Workers were also delayed in

working in the building until the abatement was complete. In addition, Mr

Crumb has other complaints, including wrongful termination of a contract.

Mr Cascella admitted his disappointment that he would probably not be the

town's first selectman when the project finally is completed. First

selectman-elect Herb Rosenthal will likely be the man in charge when the

ribbon-cutting ceremony finally does take place.

`Magical Mystery Tour'

Mr Cascella gave reporters what he called the "magical mystery tour" of the

unfinished library Monday morning. During the walk-through, the first

selectman was joined by Mr Callo and Public Building & Site Committee chairman

Frank Krasnickas, who pointed out various unfinished areas.

Overall, town officials say, the new 22,000-square-foot addition and the

renovated existing building have turned out beautifully. They just want the

job done so that all Newtown residents can enjoy it.

The most noticeable problem inside the building is the heating system, which

has gone unbalanced for several months. The extreme temperatures inside the

building have caused cracking in the joints of the woodwork.

"It's not a big job, but you've got to have someone in here to do it," Mr

Callo said.

Mr Cascella agreed.

"The books are up. It's looking beautiful, but look over there in the corner,"

he said, pointing to a leak near a radiator on the third floor.

Members of the Public Works Department have also been on the site, doing some

of the work that BTI's sub-contractors were supposed to have been doing.

Earlier this week, town employee Milton Adams was spotted installing wire

cages around sprinkler systems.

Mr Krasnickas pointed to several installed windows that simply don't fit in

the space. "These will need to be changed," he said.

Several rooms still require extensive painting.

Outside, Mr Cascella noted the large holes in the ground where pear trees were

supposed to have been planted. At the time, they were filled with water,

creating a safety hazard. On Tuesday, however, John Vollmer of Vollmers

Landscaping in Southbury planted the trees along the walkway.

As the three men prepared to leave the building, they talked briefly, trying

to figure out how to get the job done.

"It's too bad we don't have a shop class down at the high school," Mr Cascella

said. "We could bring in the kids to finish the job."