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Council: Kingsley East subject of shoddy work

By Wesley LeBlanc
Posted 7/18/18

ORANGE PARK – The Orange Park Town Council seems to be fed up with the work of multiple construction teams responsible for the work recently completed on Kingsley East and Plainfield Avenue. …

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Council: Kingsley East subject of shoddy work


Posted

ORANGE PARK – The Orange Park Town Council seems to be fed up with the work of multiple construction teams responsible for the work recently completed on Kingsley East and Plainfield Avenue.

During its July 17 regular council meeting, the already lengthy meeting was extended by an additional 15 minutes to allow the council to discuss projects that, in their eyes, didn’t meet expectations.

In her regular council report, Town Manager Sarah Campbell addressed what seemed to be the elephant in the room who also had to endure the extra-lengthy meeting Tuesday night.

“There are a number of things that I would share with you tonight, but the only thing we all want to talk about is Kingsley East so I’m just going to jump right in if that’s alright,” Campbell said.

Campbell said staff received 20 photos detailing problems present with the work on Kingsley East, of which, staff agreed there are about 16 problems that need to be corrected.

Campbell attempted to let the council know that concerns she had already heard before the meeting were already being addressed.

“We can get into specifics if you want, but the big picture is, ‘we get it,’,” Campbell said. “We don’t intend to provide you with a bad product. We’re on it. We were on it as soon as it was raised to my attention yesterday afternoon and we’ve had three or four meetings on it in the last 24 hours.”

“My goal is that when issues are brought to my attention, I would like to solve them for you and I would like myself and my staff and my team to be able to solve them for you, if given the opportunity,” Campbell said.

The council decided to open up the topic for discussion and were forced to vote to extend the meeting 15 minutes past the 10 p.m. regular cutoff time. Mayor Gary Meeks said, that simply put, the Kingsley East project is disappointing.

“I think the disappointing thing about this project is that we are already getting ready to pave in phases two and three of this project around [July 23 or July 24] and yet, from the very beginning in phase one, we have seen repetitive mistakes all the way down [the avenue],” Meeks said. “I would challenge you, and I know you’ll meet the challenge, to institute something that would not allow the lack of check and balance. I mean, we have engineering. We’ve got construction. We’ve got project management. We’ve got a public works director and we also have a town manager, so there’s no reason in the world we should’ve gone all the way down to the river with poor curbing, misaligned sidewalks, misaligned walkways, the problems [the Women’s Club is facing] – all of this without it being corrected.”

Meek’s complaints, which were echoed by the rest of the council, didn’t end there, however. He said Plainfield Avenue was experiencing problems as well.

“Tell everybody what’s going on on Plainfield because that’s a $3.5 million job that’s again sinking in between Silverwing Circle and Loring Avenue,” Meeks said. “I’m concerned about that road. It’s collapsing.”

The work the council found themselves dissatisfied with was completed by Jacksonville-based engineering firm, Stone Engineering Group, and St. Augustine-based contractor, Besch and Smith Civil Group. As Meeks mentioned, the Plainfield Avenue job was a $3.5 million job, although it’s important to mention that this job was was funded by a bond. The Kingsley East project, on the other hand, council signed a $1.1 million contract with Stone Engineering Group and Besch and Smith Civil Group to remodel a stretch of Kingsley Avenue that has been dubbed Kingsley East, the section from U.S. Highway 17/Park Avenue to the river.

To alleviate the concern surrounding these projects, Meeks suggested hiring an engineering inspector not affiliated with the council to take a deeper look at the work completed thus far, and do so before the projects continue further. The responded by approving a measure to address his concern by a 5-0 vote.

The conversation didn’t end there, though. Meeks wanted to ensure that this engineering inspector complete his work prior to phases two and three begin next week and suggest that if this doesn’t happen, the council take formal action to halt the project altogether. Campbell responded by explaining that although she would do her best, she can’t guarantee that this happens as fast as Meeks would like, citing that Florida law dictates how engineering inspectors are hired, meaning she doesn’t have much wiggle room for expediting the process.

“OK, but you aren’t going to go out and spend two weeks trying to find somebody are you?” Meeks asked.

At this point, with tensions between the council, Campbell and staff extremely high, Town Attorney Sam Garrison stepped into to remind the council where their jurisdiction begins and ends.

“Let’s take a deep breath,” Garrison said. “If Sarah, our town manager, or any town manager, wants to go out and get engineering services, the law says what that process looks like and so she can’t go around that. She has to follow that process.”

Meeks asked Garrison what they’re expected to do if a project is about to begin the next phase, despite the first phase failing in many aspects.

“You tell the town manager to fix it and you let her fix it,” Garrison said. “Any additional directions beyond that is where the council’s [jurisdiction] ends.”

As for Kingsley East and Plainfield Avenue, like Campbell explained, she and staff are looking into the incorrectly-completed work. In the meantime, based on the council’s motion, Campbell will begin the formal process of hiring an engineering inspector to review the work completed on these projects. As it stands though, phases two and three of the Kingsley East project will begin next week, as originally projected.