Sportsplex problems frustrate city council

FLORENCE - The architect for Florence's sportsplex presented repair estimates Tuesday for a sinkhole in the sportsplex irrigation pond to city council members, some of whom expressed surprise by some of the $11 million project details, such as its operational date, and cited an administrative breakdown in communication.

Sinkhole repairs in the sportsplex irrigation pond will cost an estimated $170,000. The money is to be taken from the remainder of the nearly $1,368,185 the city council appropriated for rock removal and water drilling in October, sportsplex architect Stan Tomblin told council members in a work session Tuesday.

In 2007, the city spent $917,000 for rock removal and $149,000 for water drilling, leaving nearly $300,000 in unspent appropriated funds.

Some criticized using the money, however, which will include $30,000 for filling the hole and $140,000 for smoothing the bottom and installing a rubber lining, expenditures that Tomblin noted at an earlier work session.

Council member Scott Carrier said the money was originally meant for the rock removal and water drilling, and that while it may be legal, it was not meant for repairing the sinkhole.

"It's still a cost above and beyond," Carrier said.

Mayor Bobby Irons said using the excess money was part of the normal mechanism for a "change in scope" in the project and that "fortunately, we had the money already appropriated."

He called the additional work to the sportsplex, including the rock removal and water drilling, as "a change in scope that was unanticipated when the project was put together."

"They were not overruns and not mismanagement of the funds," he said.

Several city council members also expressed surprise that the fields will likely not be playable this year. Parks Director Tina Kitchens had noted that the fields would be operational by 2009.

"There's been a breakdown in communication; we don't know up here what's going on," said council member James Barnhart.

"Everybody said spring of '08," said Councilwoman Angie Pickens of the sportsplex opening. "When you read it 'spring of '09,' it just gets you."

Irons, however, said "we've been aware for a long time it would be '09 before we would be playing."

"It was unfortunate that it was not well communicated; I will take responsibility for my part on that," said Irons, but added, "It's two-way, communication."

Tomblin said sinkhole repairs will not delay the project and that the repairs will take construction crews 10 days to complete.

Tomblin said the city would save $66,000 per field for seeding versus sodding.

"We're really talking about a million dollars," he said of the multi-field seeding that was in the original sportsplex contract.

Some residents expressed concern to the city council about the sportsplex project.

"I would like to know at what point does a contractor become accountable to this?" said regular council attendee Charles Harlon, who added, "Anybody want to bet that we won't spend the entire $1.368 million?"

During the work session, Councilman Sam Pendleton said, "We'll start when we start; we'll finish when we finish; we'll play when we play."

"When a sinkhole shows up, that's not mismanagement, that's nature."

In other city business, the council: