This story has been updated.
The opening of the first phase of the Rio Arriba County Health Commons building may be delayed by another four months and will cost at least $344,000 more than originally planned, according to County records.
Already six months behind schedule, the first phase of the Health Commons project will finally be complete by the end of this month, said Ryan Cordova, project manager for Blue Sky Builders, the Española-based company building the facility.
Health Commons is located on 10 acres of County-owned land at the end of Industrial Park Road in Española. The project, plagued by delays and funding problems since 2003, is intended to serve as a 18,500 square-foot, one-stop, shared facility for several health care agencies and clinics. Blue Sky is currently working on the first building, of a multi-building project. Construction of the initial building has been split into three phases with the first phase to include construction of the roof and outer walls of the entire building, southeast wing of offices, lobby and restrooms. Later phases will include finishing the inside of the northeast wing and the inside of the central section of the building which besides the lobby, is supposed to include a medical clinic.
County Manager Lorenzo Valdez said the state Construction Industries Division would not do a final inspection to approve occupancy for the first phase before mid-February. Even then, however, he admitted that safety concerns stemming from construction of the rest of the building might prevent Division inspectors from issuing the occupancy permit necessary for health officials to move in to the completed portion of the building.
“There will be heavy equipment operating in the parking lot, and dust,” Valdez said.
He said that completion of the northeast wing would require at least an additional three months — meaning that if construction of the rest of the building precludes an occupancy permit, the Commons will sit vacant for at least another four months.
But County Grants and Contracts Administrator Phillip Morfin said Tuesday that he had an implicit “guarantee” from the Division that the County would receive an occupancy permit for the southeast wing and central lobby so long as they included bathrooms originally scheduled to be built as part of phase two — the northeast wing, which is currently little more than a shell of a building with a dirt floor.
“I’m hoping they can move in (by the) end of February,” Morfin said Monday.
Division Inspector Julian Gonzales said there are no guarantees. Gonzales said he cannot issue a permanent or final occupancy permit for the Commons until construction of the entire building is complete, but said a temporary permit can be issued if construction poses no safety concerns for those using the completed part of the building.
“First the County fire marshal and (Division) electrical and plumbing inspectors have to sign off,” Gonzales said. “Then I do the final inspection. I have to make sure the building is safe for the public to use. I can’t issue a permanent occupancy permit since the building’s not complete, but it could get a temporary permit.”
Gonzales admitted that even a temporary permit may not be issued if heavy equipment is operating near the public parking and entrance areas, or if dust and asphalt fumes from phase two construction are heavy in the public areas inside the building.
Construction was supposed to be completed in July 2008, but the County has not enforced penalties stipulated in the contract for failing to meet that deadline.
Since construction began in February 2008, 12 change orders (amendments to the construction work plan and budget) have been filed with the County by Blue Sky Builders, increasing the cost of construction by at least $844,000 and adding to the delay, County documents state. The total cost of construction is now $3.2 million compared with the accepted bid of about $2.3 million before taxes. The actual amount the project is overbudget is $344,000 because one $500,000 change order included in the original project budget as an alternative. That is unlikely to be the full extent of budget overruns; a public records request submitted to the County for additional documents had not yet been fulfilled by Tuesday. The County had been using a combination of public and private grants, a legislative appropriation and with the cost overruns the general budget. to pay for the project.
Latest Delays
The latest in a series of delays has been getting the city of Española to hook up the Commons’s water supply.
“The water’s not hooked up,” Morfin said Monday. “All that’s required is a pressure-reducing valve. The city’s working on that now.”
Española Water Services Director Marvin Martinez did not return repeated phone calls.
Valdez said extending the city water line was necessary because water from the city water line that is closest to the Commons does not meet federal safety standards. It leads from a well to a tank containing cleaner water from a separate well near the National Guard armory across Industrial Park Road, Valdez said.
City Water Operator Ramon Marquez said that the issues were with arsenic and fluoride levels.
Valdez and Morfin both said they did not know what pollutant or contaminant exceeds federal standards for the undiluted well or why the city was providing the Health Commons with a “blended” supply of contaminated and uncontaminated water, rather than simply providing access to the clean water line.
“Once the two water sources are blended together, they meet EPA standards,” Valdez said.
The County paid the city $15,300 to extend the water line from the cleaner, blended water line to the Health Commons property line, according to a Dec. 4 agreement between the County and City Water Services Department.
Morfin said Monday that as soon as the water is hooked up, the County can run tests and request Division and state fire marshal inspections. But he subsequently identified another possible delay: the fire alarm monitoring box needs to be moved from an enclosed room to the lobby.
“The trouble alert panel has no line of sight from the lobby desk,” Morfin said. “If the alarm goes off and they don’t hear it, nobody can see the flashing light.”
Asked why the problem was not detected earlier, Morfin said only that it had been an “oversight” and that it was easily remedied with another “minimal” change order.
“The conduit just has to be moved,” Morfin said.
He would not estimate the cost of the additional work.
Blue Sky Builders also caused a delay when they subcontracted Sanbros Corporation to fully install the building’s fire alarm system — rather than only installing electrical conduits for the alarm, as specified in the firm’s original bid.
“There was a miscommunication,” Morfin said. “For some reason, the project architect (John Layman) approved a subcontractor. We’re lucky (Sanbros) didn’t install the entire system. They only installed maybe 10 percent of it.”
Morfin initially said he had drafted a change order for a re-installation of the alarm system by Phone World Enterprises, a pre-approved County contractor, so that Health Commons would be equipped with the same “FireLite” alarm system as other County buildings.
However, after repeated searches of County records yielded no change order for Phone World’s reinstallation of the alarm system, Morfin said Monday that the second installation of the alarm system had involved a purchase order.
But searches of County records Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning yielded no such purchase order.
Morfin admitted Tuesday that Phone World had only that morning completed the alarm system installation plans, which would be sent to the state fire marshal for approval Monday — even though Phone World was already installing the alarm system.
Without approval of the plans for the already-underway installation, Phone World cannot send a price quote to the County, Morfin said. And without a price quote, Morfin admitted, he was unable to draft a purchase order.
While not illegal, installing the system before it is approved risks yet more delays and expense, according to State Fire Marshal John Standefer.
“Plans should be submitted prior to installation but that’s not absolutely required,” Standefer said. “They run the risk that if they proceed with installing prior to plan review, that they’ll delay or add cost to the project. If the plan’s not in code compliance, they’ll have to start over.”
Standefer confirmed Tuesday having received that afternoon the Phone World alarm system plans for the Health Commons.
Lingering Hopes
Once an occupancy permit is issued, the southeast wing will house the County Health and Human Services Department, a state Public Health needle exchange and health education specialists from the county, state and El Centro Family Health, Morfin and Health and Human Services Director Lauren Reichelt said.
“The state Public Health educators will handle teen pregnancy, diabetes and substance abuse prevention education,” Reichelt said. “El Centro is putting in an educator to cover nutrition education, heart disease and diabetes. And our educators will cover substance abuse, access to health care and obesity prevention.”
For now, only four handicapped parking spaces will be paved. Asphalt for the larger parking lot will not be poured until the northeast wing’s construction begins next month, Blue Sky Builders Site Superintendant Adolph Candelario said.
Construction of the northeast wing should begin in February and will be completed no earlier than May, Candelario said. It will eventually house the federal Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (called WIC), an El Centro clinic and public health offices.
Reichelt said housing health agencies together will benefit agencies and patients alike.
“It will be fabulous once it’s finished,” Reichelt said. “The people my staff works with most frequently will be in the same office. And clients coming in for needle exchange will be able to talk to substance abuse services right there.”
The $500,000 cost of the northeast wing of offices was tacked onto phase one as a change order. The funding for remainder of the building is still in doubt.
The only funding secured so far for that phase is a $711,929 grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, County Grants and Contracts Accountant Felicia Parker said.
Correction: This story required a correction and two clarifications.
The article originally stated that “there were no penalties stipulated” in Rio Arriba County’s Health Commons construction contract with Blue Sky Builders. In fact, the contract states that construction must be completed on and before July 29, 2008, subject to a $500 per day penalty for noncompletion after that point. The County has not enforced this stipulation in the contract.
The article also stated that the 12 change orders modifying construction plans bring the project cost to about $3.2 million, $844,000 over County’s originally-approved construction budget and that “the $500,000 cost of the northeast wing of offices was tacked onto phase one as (the 12th) change order. The funding for the remainder of the building is still in doubt.”
However, the $500,000 change order falls under an additional “alternate” budget item approved by the County in December 2007, and therefore should not have been included in the calculation of construction cost overruns. The remaining construction change orders total $344,000 over the originally approved base bid.
The article identified Western States Fire Protection as the Blue Sky Builders subcontractor who installed the building’s fire alarm, but Blue Sky Builders Project Manager Ryan Cordova clarified Monday that Western States installed the fire protection (sprinkler) system and that subcontractor Sanbros Corporation, based in Alcalde, began the installation of the fire alarm system that was subsequently halted by the County, which hired Phone World Enterprises to do the installation instead.