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Rutland Selectboard certifies Public Safety Building as "substantially completed" despite unfinished sprinkler work
Summary
The Town of Rutland Selectboard voted 5-0 to sign a Vermont Bond Bank certificate stating the new Public Safety Building is substantially completed and in use, even as the fire chief and Clerk of the Works reported an outstanding punch list including an unfinished sprinkler control connection and related systems.
Rutland Selectboard members voted to sign a Vermont Bond Bank certificate of project completion for the town's new Public Safety Building, saying the building is substantially completed and in use while noting remaining work on the punch list.
The vote, taken March 25 during the regular selectboard meeting, was 5-0 in favor of certifying the project as "substantially completed so as to permit efficient use and operation," a document the bond bank requested as part of its loan oversight.
The certificate matters because the bond bank asked the town to confirm that the building it financed is occupying its intended use; signing does not mean the town will release final contractor payments or close out all contractor obligations.
Clerk of the Works Joe Donardo told the board the construction team has compiled a punch list of about 31 items that remain to be addressed. Donardo said many items are already being tracked with the contractor and subsystems vendors but that items remain in the police department apparatus area and elsewhere.
Town fire chief Chris (Chris Clark) objected to signing while the sprinkler system and a final pump connection remained incomplete. "To sign anything off is ridiculous," the chief said during debate, arguing the sprinkler pump work needed to be completed before treating the building as finished. "To pay this VMS off without this being done is asinine in my opinion," he added, referencing the general contractor by name.
Town counsel and staff briefed the selectboard in an executive session before the vote; the board returned to the public meeting and approved the certificate. Selectboard members said the town will continue to hold the contractor to the punch list and will not equate signing the bond-bank certificate with making final payments.
After the vote the board directed staff to include a note to the bond bank and to press the contractor and subsystems vendors to finish outstanding sprinkler controls, the pump connection and other punch-list items so the state inspection can be closed out.
What happens next: the selectboard's action establishes to the bond bank that the building is in productive use; town staff said they will continue to press for completion of the punch list and for the state sprinkler inspection and final contractor actions before any final contract payments are released.
