(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic School Board, Wednesday night heard an update on the District’s Athletic Facilities project. FRK Architects’ Principal/Owner Tom Wollan said some final project items are being wrapped-up, thanks to the mild weather.

Wollan acknowledged that’s it’s “Been a long haul,” though, and that “It’s been a struggle.” He said they appreciate the District’s patience, and indicated Wednesday night’s meeting marked a “milestone night,” with regard to the contractor’s four Certificates of “Substantial Completion,” of the projects.

“Substantial completion,” he said, means “That’s when the warranty will start on the project and all the items that have one-year warranties from the contractor…” Wollan said a key thing for the Board to be aware of, is that the District is still holding on to five-percent of the project construction costs, “for retainage.” That amounts to roughly $500,000, which will not be released to the contractors until the District is “comfortable and confident that all items are complete to your satisfaction.”

The contractor can and likely will apply for”partial retainage release,”so that those parties who completed their projects satisfactorily can be paid. Superintendent Steve Barber some of the things they are holding the contractor accountable for is some concrete work and issues associated with that. Wollan says that warranty periods for some of those items has passed, but since the issues were identified during the warranty period, the issues are considered to be “Punch-list” items that the contractor is responsible to have fixed before they are signed-off on.

Wollan said the Atlantic School District is not the only district in the state struggling to deal with the primary contractor for project satisfaction. Other district’s, he said, have similar issues. Despite the delays and issues with construction, Board member Nick Hunt said “We do have a final project that looks nice, and I think the community and everyone appreciates it.”