Council unhappy with Avenue progress

The Town Council clearly had no patience for a request from Low Mountain Construction for more time to complete the Avenue of the Fountains improvement project without penalty.

The project is under contract to be completed by Oct. 20.

But the contractor was seeking an additional 18 days (to Nov. 7) to complete the work.

The contract calls for a 180-day schedule for completion and every day beyond that costs the contractor $710 per day.

The council did vote to give an additional two days due to weather conditions, but members were clearly unimpressed by other issues raised by the contractor.

The contractor also cited delays in SRP getting power installed, and delays from two manufacturers in getting materials delivered such was water feature parts and light fixtures.

Vice Mayor Cecil Yates noted that the delays started at the very beginning.

You were not the low bidder, Yates said. You issued a challenge (to the credentials of the low bidder) and that caused a two-week delay to the start.

Respectfully, I do not see a full crew working out there. I can see a little extension, but I have real issues.

One issue raised by the contractor was the extra time it took to have power delivered to the site. Development Services Director Paul Mood explained that weather priorities had delayed SRP in getting crews to the site to connect the power.

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Council unhappy with Avenue progress