By SCOTT REESE WILLEY

Hometown Press

When Hurricane Ike plowed into Oak Island in September 2008, it swept away the community’s fire station.

Now, 28 months later, the fire department’s equipment is still being stored outside.

The reason: work on the community’s new fire house has stopped, and may not get underway again in the near future.

County commissioners discussed the problem at their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday.

County Engineer Don Brandon  said the company hired to build the new fire station has stopped working on it because of “contract issues.”

Brandon did not elaborate, but said it was his belief that the company, Pelco Construction Company of Liberty, “has not agreed to return to work.” 

Beaumont attorney Nathan Brandimark, with the lawfirm of Orgain, Bell & Tucker, LLP., which is representing the county in the dispute, said he has talked to the attorney representing Pelco and was informed that the company has no intentions of resuming work on the project.

“It appears Pelco has no intention of sitting down with the county and discussing what it would take to get them back to work,” he said. “They have no intention to do that, to return to work, and they won’t tell us why.”

Brandimark told The Hometown Press after the meeting that Pelco notified the county in writing last month that it was terminating its contract with the county on the grounds the county had breached its contract by stopping work on the project for 30 consecutive days.

Brandimark said the county asked the company to halt work on the project after FEMA objected to the costs of the project. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is financing 90 percent of the project, but balked when the project was revised to include wheelchair ramps, he explained. The  state of Texas insisted the county include the ramps to be in compliance with federal law, he said.

Brandimark said the county is caught in the middle and asked Pelco to stop work on the project until FEMA and the state of Texas could come to a agreement. 

Oak Island Fire Captain Mike Thruston said Pelco did no work on the project at all during the month of November and spent two days in December taking down forms. The company poured the foundation for the new fire house before work stopped.

Commissioners wondered if Pelco simply used the work stoppage to terminate the contract because the company had underbid the project. 

County Judge Jimmy Sylvia asked how long it would take to rebid the project and get it back on track.

Brandimark said a provision in the original contract allows either side to seek arbitration if a dispute arises, and arbitration means mediation.

Besides, Brandimark said, if the county rebids the project it might be forced to hire the next highest bidder for the project. What if that company’s bid is $400,000 higher than Pelco’s bid? he asked. He said the county might be able to recover any additional expense if Pelco can be shown to be in breach of contract.

Of the four bids received last spring, Pelco’s was the lowest, Brandon said.

“The county would be arguably damaged if the next highest bid is excessively higher than Pelco’s,” Brandimark told The Hometown Press.

Brandimark told commissioners he will research the matter and see if Pelco is in breach of contract.

“We need to do whatever we need to do to get the ball rolling,” Commissioner Mark  Huddleston said.

Commissioners authorized County Judge Jimmy Sylvia, Brandon and Brandimark to negotiate with Pelco and either get them back to work or allow the county to rebid the project without going through time-consuming arbitration.

Fire Capt. Mike Thruston said he hopes the county acts quickly on the matter because the fire equipment has been sitting outside in the cold and rain for 28 months.

“We are protecting our equipment the best we can; however, we are looking at 27 degree temperatures in the morning and that means we are draining pumps each day and if an emergency arises and we have to empty a pump our response time is going to be much slower,” he said. 

The sunlight also weakens fire hoses, he added. “We need to get our equipment indoors as soon as possible.”