Council Set To Vote On Deal To Recoup Rec Center Costs

NEW PORT RICHEY - With a final price tag of $14.1 million, every penny counts.

So when city officials discovered last year that the cost of building the recreation and aquatics complex had been driven up by design flaws, they blamed the main architect, Harper, Aiken, Donahue and Partners Inc. of St. Petersburg.

Last week, the city agreed to a deal to recoup $141,032 for the design flaws, more than $350,000 less than officials originally sought.

Tonight, the city council is to decide whether to accept the settlement.

Under terms of the pact, Harper Aiken admits no fault or liability for current or future problems with the complex's deficiencies.

The agreement seeks to resolve problems with the center's bathrooms - which were not close enough to the pools to meet state health codes - that cost the city $260,000.

Deputy Mayor Bob Consalvo, for one, is pleased with the outcome of the negotiations and said the extra money will help pay for other redevelopment projects. "That's money that's going back into our redevelopment fund that we can use," he said.

Councilman Rob Marlowe called it "a fair settlement," adding: "And we can make good use of this money."

The new complex, built mostly with redevelopment money borrowed on future property tax revenue, was billed as the largest capital improvement project in city history. It was completed on time and well under budget.

But in June, then-City Manager Scott Miller issued a memo saying the architect made "numerous errors" on the design that cost the city upward of $500,000.

Besides the bathroom design, Miller said surge tanks in the pool pump house did not include a gasket in the original drawings, costing an additional $2,500; blueprints failed to show fences and gates around retention ponds, which added $25,000; and problems with the design of downspouts cost another $22,479.

He recommended the city take the firm to court, but council members urged caution, requesting that city staff pursue a possible settlement. After a year of wrangling, that deal is finally on the table.

The budget for the complex, which replaced the 37-year-old recreation center on Van Buren Street, rose nearly 50 percent after city officials endorsed the original plan. In December 2004, the council signed off on a budget then estimated at $9.5 million.

Within a year, that had swelled to $15.5 million because of design modifications and rising cost of construction materials. At one point, city officials talked of scrapping the project.

After meetings with Harper Aiken, city planners pared the budget to an estimated $14.2 million. At the time, several council members blamed the firm for low-balling the original estimates and suggested they might not have gone ahead with the project if the original figure had been close to the adjusted price.