Larry King, director of environmental services for Person County Schools, told the school board during its regular April meeting Thursday that the work is running about three months behind.

The original completion date for the project was March 3. King said the contractor, E.M. Wilkerson and Sons, asked for an extension that will run the completion target out to May 1.

At that time, if the project is not complete, the contractor will go into a penalty phase and be charged $200 per day for each day the work is not completed.

King told the school board Thursday night that he was not optimistic about the contractor meeting the May 1 deadline.

He said that as of April 1, steel framework was in place, interior block walls were complete in the shop area and office wall construction was in process. Also, said King, the fence around the property was about two-thirds complete; landscaping was about 50 percent done; and gravel for bus parking was about 35 percent complete. Last week, said King, about 90 percent of the roof was complete.

The contractor has said he is behind schedule, according to King, because of delays by the state Department of Insurance. At the onset of the project, the DOI had to approve the manufactured building drawings for the metal building that will serve as the garage. Without that approval, the contractor could not secure a Person County building permit. The contractor asked for an additional 115 days, King said, but architects at LS3P Boney, the firm overseeing the construction, determined that only 56 days were warranted.

Christy Hutchins, construction contract administrator with LS3P, said that, after checking the site and talking with Wilkerson, she did not believe the DOI had held up the project for the 115 days Wilkerson sought.

Hutchins maintained the contractor could have moved forward with other “critical path” work such as preparing for footings, working on the fencing and getting utility work done.

Wilkerson claimed that, without the building permit, he could not move forward, Hutchins said, “But we say no. He could have worked” during the time he was awaiting word from the DOI and for the building permit to be issued.

As it stands now, said Hutchins, May 1 should be the “substantial completion date,” meaning that all work except punch list items should be done by then. After that, she said, the contractor would have “30 days to final” completion.

Beginning May 1, said Hutchins, if the work is not complete, there could be two separate penalties for the contractor. After May 1, if substantial completion is not accomplished, he will be penalized $200 a day “to the point at which we can grant substantial completion,” she said. After that time, the penalty would be $100 per day “until we can acquire completion.”

Once the project is completed, it will end a six-year quest to replace the aging bus garage on Leasburg Road. For the past several years, the large buses in use do not fit into the bays at the old garage.

The Person Board of County Commissioners agreed to fund the new bus garage as part of a package of county capital improvement work. Wilkerson submitted the low bid of $2.1 million for the job in July 2007.