By Cynthia Koons
The company that insured the contractor fired for failing to complete the College Point ballfields on time did not meet the deadline for hiring a replacement firm, the city said this week.
It had been 25 business days on Monday, Jan. 26, since the city Department of Design and Construction axed ADC Contracting of College Point and left the builder’s insurance company, Kemper Insurance Cos., in charge of finding a new contractor for the site. The ballfields are located between 23rd and 28th avenues along Linden Place.
“We are requesting that they attend a meeting this Friday where we will be asking them to explain to us the plan for resumption of the project,” Department of Design and Construction spokesman Matthew Monahan said. “We expected to see on-site work. We haven’t.”
A spokeswoman from Kemper said a new contractor had not yet been selected because the city’s 25-day time limit was not enough time to complete the search.
“It takes time to go through this process. We’re working as quickly as we can with them,” said Linda Kingman, a spokeswoman for Kemper Insurance Cos. “We are in very frequent communication with the city of New York and are working very diligently with them to get a new contractor in place to complete the work.”
The College Point ballfields have been plagued with delays since the city closed the fields in October 1997 after illegal construction debris was found on the site. The closing of the fields left 1,300 children without a place to play soccer, Little League baseball, softball and roller hockey.
Officials have been promising the park’s reopening since June 2002. After the Department of Design and Construction fired the contractor on Dec. 17, the agency designated a span of 25 business days during which the contractor’s insurance company was supposed to propose a new builder for the site.
In December, the Department of Design and Construction said ADC missed the Nov. 15 deadline for completing the project and said that by firing the company, the ballfields would be finished for this spring’s Little League season.
“We said when we put the default out to the contractor that that’s a primary goal, to have it ready for the next baseball season’s use,” Monahan said. ADC’s President Anthony Chiodi maintains that if he were allowed to finish the project, it would be done by then.
The agency said the contractor did not finish or properly build the restrooms, bleachers, roller hockey rink, the drainage or stone work outside of the restrooms.
Chiodi said the delays in the project are all attributable to the Department of Design and Construction’s mismanagement of the site. He is suing the agency for “wrongful termination” and $350,000, which amounts to the completion of his contract.
He said his insurance company, Kemper Insurance Cos., proposed Chiodi’s company be allowed to finish the job they started in August 2002. But the city rejected that proposal, he said.
“They’re not giving Kemper the opportunity to get the proper proposals from other contractors,” Chiodi said.
When asked if the meeting on Friday is a pre-default meeting for the insurance company, Monahan said, “We’ll use the term here ‘to show cause.’”
Reach reporter Cynthia Koons by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.
