How much does it cost not to streetscape a street?
The answer is over $200,000 and counting.
On Jan. 3, the city closed North Eugene Street between Smith and Bellemeade streets to allow Yates Construction Company Inc. to streetscape those blocks and also for waterline replacement.
At the Tuesday, Jan. 4 City Council meeting, business owners on North Eugene Street complained that the city had not made adequate allowances for them to continue to operate their businesses while the street was closed and asked for relief. They noted that no provisions had been made for their businesses to get deliveries, for their customers to park or even for their garbage to be picked up. They also said that they had been told they could choose whether to have the street completely closed for three months or partially closed for six months but were not given that option.
The City Council ordered the street be reopened and on Wednesday, Jan. 5 construction was halted and the street reopened. North Eugene Street remains open and construction has not been restarted.
The result of the City Council ordering construction to be stopped and the Eugene Street reopened is that the city is now paying the contractor Yates Construction not to work.
In January, Yates billed the city $123,672 for “Down-time” per the contract with the City of Greensboro.
In February, Yates billed the city $107,962 for “Down-time.”
So the spur of the moment decision by the City Council to reopen North Eugene Street and halt construction has cost the city $231,634, and that is what the city is paying Yates not to work.
Greensboro Engineering Division Manager Jason Geary in an email explained, “This contract contains provisions that provides compensation to the contractor if the owner (City) suspends the work by their choice, much as there are provisions to provide for completion of the work at the contractor’s expense if he/she fails to fulfill their requirements of the contract.”
I will volunteer to not work for the City for March and April at $50,000 per month.
When can I start?
Not shocked at all…remember your vote!
Another example of incompetence by this council and some city employees. Do the outstanding city lawyers even review contracts?
Looks like yet another C-F for the govt.
Our city needs people that know WTH they are doing . Know about contracts, know when one of them is involved, have some damn common sense…. people with business backgrounds and backbones. This city is getting ready to grow big time and it is still being run by almost volunteer people with no experience whatever! SMH
Mac, As the guy who actually “broke” this story ( with George Hartzman’) , the blame rests solely with Zack Matheny and the mayor . Zoom meeting recording and emails will clearly support such claim . Zack even pulled his old “ go to “ by pretending to want to “fight “ the representative from Yates construction… over zoom of course… lol!
Bottom line, he ( and DGI )are responsible for stopping the work and forcing us to pay a construction company to actually do nothing!
I actually spoke with Yates and they clearly said that would have been done by now. What a waste of $200,000 +. Must be nice to pretend to be a big d%k player with other people s money .
What a waste!
DGI is the biggest sham the city has going.
What’s a couple of hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money?
Spendthrift City Council should be ashamed!
This is a great example of poor planning before the project started, a lack of communication with the business owners, inadequate coordination with the contractor during the construction and a knee-jerk decision by the City Council. Was this project designed and bid by the City Engineering Department or by a professional engineering firm? If the former, a full explanation should be requested of the City Engineer. If the latter, the engineer of record should be called to answer many questions. Solid engineering practice and the array of tools at todays engineer’s fingertips should never result in these type of problems. Some one is not performing their jobs correctly and as a result, taxpayers money is wasted. Not unusual in Greensboro and Guilford County.
What a smart council we have always watching out for the taxpayers “ please note a large amount of sarcasm here”. Always willing to waste as much money as they can. Just wondering how that would work if they had to write a personal check for their incompetence
On Eugene St. Issue. Where is the money coming from to pay Yates for not working. It was not mentioned in article. Who takes blame for not checking with business on route as to how their customers would be able to get to them? Or is this just an oops! and we pay with no question on responsibility.
We have to have the dumbest city council in the country. I don’t even know what to sat at this point.
This scenario sounds like an Abbott and Costello movie:‘Who’s on FIRST’.it seems like we were just talking about a senario with The mayor and Hightower complaining about a certain bid was not what the two of them wanted so a change was instituted by going around the rest of city council.Why was someone smart enough to see this happening.But O well it’s just Taxpayer money so that ‘s OK. It’s not coming out of our pocket.When are the people of Greensboro going to wise up and vote all these freeloaders out and get some Republicans in office who care about your tax dollars.Start getting some great Republicans out to take these city council jobs!!!!!!!
Mandate mayor shows lack of leadership and zero financial responsibility to our citizens. For shame.
Oh, you wanted to continue business?
AND “THEY” keep getting away with “IT”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW? WHY?
Sorry but I have to place the blame directly at the feet of the city engineer who was in charge. She should have looked at all aspects of the project and the contract if not then she’s clearly incompetent or is not ready for this level of responsibility
First of all, the City Engineer is not a woman. Second of all, every single business in this corridor met with City staff on multiple occasions and were given the opportunity to express their concerns. Of those concerns, every single one of them was met. Yates Construction would be 100% done with their work at this point, if our City Council were not beholden to DGI and Zack Matheny. 2 property owners who were butt hurt over Carroll building the apartments/hotel across from the ballpark have colluded with DGI to bring a halt to construction that would have benefited the downtown district and the City. Which is now costing taxpayers at a rate of around $100k per month. That funding is coming from the funded contract for the project. So now, IF the project ever gets built, City Council will have to approve a Change Order for additional funds to go to Yates so they can finish.