Oct. 8, 2010 —
By a vote of 3-1 at a special meeting last week, the Carter County Board of Education rescinded a controversial “project labor agreement” (PLA) that had resulted in a lawsuit which threatened to further delay construction of the proposed Tygart Creek Elementary School.
Voting to rescind the agreement were board members Randy Stegall, David Jessie, and Chris Patrick. Voting “no” was Bryan Greenhill. Robert Flaugher was absent.
The action came a week after the school district failed for the second time to receive construction bids within the current $12 million scope of the project. The latest bids exceeded estimates by about $1.1 million. When first advertised in late 2009, low bids were more than $2 million too high.
The labor agreement was originally approved by the school board on May 17. It resulted in a lawsuit against the board last month by the Associated General Contractors of Kentucky, based in Louisville, and JMK Electric of Grayson, and its owner, Robert Newland.
“We are satisfied that the best interests of all concerned will be served by the school board’s decision and that the lawsuit will be dropped and the new school can be built as planned,” said Steven L. Burton, business manager of the Tri-State Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO.
He said his organization soon would be issuing a detailed public statement concerning the situation.
Chris Oney of the National Alliance for Fair Contracting, a union-backed group that monitors the business practices of contractors, said of the board’s action:
“We came to a mutual decision that going ahead with the construction of this school to better serve kids was more important than fighting over the lawsuit and again delaying the project.”
Oney and representatives of the Tri-State Building and Construction Trades Council had encouraged the board since last winter to adopt the PLA as a means of guaranteeing well-paying jobs for local construction workers.
In the lawsuit, AGC, JMK and Newland contended that the agreement was designed to force all workers into a union and to exclude non-union contractors from bidding on the project.
The school board’s attorney, Jeffrey Scott, was authorized to file a motion in Franklin Circuit Court for dismissal of the lawsuit.
Carter County Schools Supt. Darlene Gee said she is hopeful the project can be bid a third time at a reduced scope of about $10.5 million. Depending on bids and weather, the building could be finished as early as January 2012, she added.
To be located on U.S. 60 about two miles from the existing Upper Tygart Elementary, the new facility would house about 450 students from pre-school through fifth grade. Those students currently attend Upper Tygart and Olive Hill elementaries.
Tygart Creek Elementary would have more than 50,000 square feet of floor space and would allow the school district to stop using the old Olive Hill elementary for pre-school programs, according to Gee.
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