by Ryan Florsheim
and Jeff Proctor
Daily Lobo
Workers from Silver Construction Company of New Mexico, Inc. have been given seven days to leave campus after their contract to build the new SUB was terminated by University administrators Thursday.
"I sent them a letter today saying that they are in default of contract," said Julie Weaks Gutierrez, UNM's vice president of business and finance. "I'm beginning to count the seven days today."
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According to the letter, the grounds for the contract's termination include, but are not limited to: persistently and repeatedly failing to supply enough properly skilled workers or proper materials and persistent and repeated failure to maintain a project schedule so as to complete the project within the time provided by the contract plus any allowable contract time extensions.
Weaks Gutierrez said she thinks that the termination will delay the SUB's completion, but that in the long run, the University will be better off.
"My fear is that continuing with Silver Construction Company would have delayed this project for even longer," she said.
"I think that it is a concern that we are just now firing the contractor," said Jennifer Onuska, president of the Associated Students of UNM. She added that firing Silver Construction Co. is a step in the right direction if it will hasten construction on the SUB.
Weaks Gutierrez was unable to say how much more work remains to be done before the SUB is completed. She added that the project's targeted completion date is still sometime in May.
University officials will meet Tuesday with Silver's bonding agent, National Union Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, to discuss what options are available to them.
Roger Lujan, director of the UNM Facility Planning Department, said concerns that progress on the SUB was unacceptably slow have existed for several months.
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to go to the construction site and see how many people are actually working," Lujan said, adding that this is the first construction contract that UNM has ever terminated. "We were forced to take such drastic measures after becoming convinced that the kind of high-level of activity needed to finish the project by the expected date did not exist under Silver Construction."
Lujan said there was a November meeting between UNM administrators, the company's bonding agent, Ken Watkins, president of Silver Construction and his lawyer, to convince the company to speed up its construction efforts.
"He notified us that he would have the SUB finished and ready to be opened by May first," Lujan said. "Since then, however, he has submitted numerous extension notices, which would have made the actual completion unacceptably behind schedule."
Lujan said UNM administrators did not fire Silver Construction before because it would have created an even bigger delay in the project.
"This unfortunate event will have a delaying effect, but on a positive note the University has the resources needed to turn this negative into a positive," Lujan said. "We are doing our best to make the delay minimal."
Bruce Cherrin, director of Purchasing and University Services at UNM, said the SUB project will be in better hands at the conclusion of Tuesday's meeting, regardless of who is put in charge of it.
"We are looking at every available option," Cherrin said. "There is a lot to consider."
Some options are: the bonding agent can take over the SUB's construction, the bonding agent can hire a new contractor or the University can finish the job itself, Weaks Gutierrez said.
She added that the University tried to give Watkins a chance to get the project back on schedule.
"We met with this man's bonding company, who then brought in a consultant to help him," she said. "I told him that I was serious. I feel that I put him on notice that his handling of the project was unacceptable."
A representative of Silver Construction told the Daily Lobo that Watkins was out of town Thursday.
