by Nick Delgado
Guam - It cost roughly $65 million to build, and seven months into the school year and John F. Kennedy High School remains unfinished.
"The major items are the gym, which is just the floor, and right now we are waiting on a moisture barrier material to arrive in order to install the floor," said IBC president Robert Toelkes. This afternoon, a closed-door meeting was held at JFK. School administrators, Toelkes and DPW director Carl Dominguez went through a punch list of items that remain undone.
The gym floor for example: the materials wont arrive for another two months to complete the project. Another: the pavement for the parking lot has been poured and is being used. But there's no striping or markings. "Now which weren't on the original plans and I've confirmed this myself is the directional arrows on the pavement and IBC together with the staff have come up with a scheme and I am going to bring it to my engineers and if they approve it then IBC can put down the striping," he said.
Other items on the punch list, the dance room floor remains unfinished, JFK would like the contract to fix minor cracks in the facility that need to patched up as well as secure loose rocks that pose a major safety hazard, also unfinished: the tennis courts need to be resurfaced and the list goes on. According to the contract JFK was supposed to be fully completed in July last year, instead it was opened under with a conditional permit. And evidently there's no penalties being imposed.
"For the contract it's between CAPFA and IBC, you know there's the liquidated damages between those two and not between the government," Toekles said. when asked about any liquidated damages, he responded, "No, we met substantial completion which is basically allowed the students to move in. The items that are outstanding is basically due to inclement weather and changes we had to make in the design."
"That was one of the conditions of the agreement and with CAPFA being the owners of the structure they contended they won't be pursing liquidated damages through IBC."
GEDA administrator Karl Pangelinan adds language with stronger penalties for agreements between a building owner and developer needs to be done in the future so projects do not fall behind again. This means IBC if home free, despite being months behind in the future.
As for when IBC will complete 100% of the JFK high facility, officials say that date is anticipated for the end of April.
IBC IS also waiting for the Guam Police Department to makes its next move and find funding before proceeding with the construction of the koban on the JFK property.
