New Buffalo – The New Buffalo school board Tuesday fired the builder of the district's new high school/middle school.

Termination of Reinke Construction Corp.'s contract took effect at 3:30 p.m., according to a news release issued late Tuesday by Superintendent Michael Lindley.

According to a story pubished in the Herald Palladium on Thursday, May 03, 2001 this decision may be just the first volley in a battle between the contractor and district.

An attorney for the contractor, Scott Keller, vowed to fight the district in court. "Reinke disagrees that sufficient grounds exist under the contract documents for the owner (school district) to terminate the contract. Reinke will claim (in legal action) wrongful termination as part of its complaint, and will seek punitive and exemplary damages."

Keller is a partner in Anderson, Agostino & Keller law firm of South Bend.

He said the company has had to fight to get paid for work it has done.

"I had previously issued a seven-day notice to the school district that Reinke was going to stop work if they didn't pay $250,000 that was past due for some time," Keller said. "It wasn't until after I sent that notice that they finally released that money."

He said that money was paid last week. It covered work only through March 4. He said Reinke submitted the payment application March 7, and he wrote the seven-day notice April 13.

In May 1999, Reinke, of South Bend, Ind., won the general contract for the estimated $12 million building on Clay Street. According to that contract, the school was supposed to have been "substantially" completed by December 2000, but it was far from ready then, according to Lindley.

Reinke asked for more time, and the school board hired a construction management firm to oversee the work. Moving in was rescheduled from Christmas vacation to spring break. Moving has now been tentatively rescheduled for June.

Lindley said the present high school/middle school building was sold in February. The sales contract calls for the school to be vacated for the new owner by August.

But major sections of the new building remain unfinished. The board has called for the entire roof to be replaced and the concrete subfloor of the performing arts center to be ripped out and redone.

The board blames Reinke for failing to provide enough "properly skilled workers or proper materials," failing to pay subcontractors for materials or labor in accordance with the contract, and for delays it feels are not justifiable.

"After four and one half months of delay, the board simply said, "Enough is enough,'" said Lindley. He added the project is within budget and a June occupancy date still is possible.

The board authorized Lindley and the construction management firm, Construction Control Inc., to keep the subcontractors who are performing well and fire the rest. It authorized them to find a new general contractor.

"There may be some short-term delays during the next few days, but we're already working on identifying new contractors and, with appropriate staffing, we should be able to make up for the short-term delays very quickly," Lindley said. "The end is definitely in sight."

Contractor attorney Keller said to terminate the contract, the school district must have cause: there must be a material breach of the contract. Keller said Reinke Construction disagrees that any contract breach sufficient to justify ending the contract has occurred.

"Reinke has continued to work and for whatever reason, cannot seem to please this particular owner," Keller said.

He said last week, the school board asked for more manpower on site. He said Reinke put in more workers.

The board wanted the concrete slab under the performing arts center replaced. Keller said third-party testing agencies advised the board the work was within industry standards and did not need to be replaced, but the board insisted, so Reinke agreed.

"There were several meetings and letters exchanged that there was no reason to replace that floor," Keller said. "Reinke started to remove it, but with reservation of rights to request additional compensation if an arbitrator later would determine Reinke was right, the floor did not need to be replaced."

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