Fairhope skate park $30,000 ADECA grant not received

Published: Sunday, December 12, 2010, 9:14 AM

FAIRHOPE, Alabama -- A year and a half after a new, 5,000-square-foot concrete skateboarding plaza was built beside Volanta Avenue, the city still hasn’t received the federal grant money that was supposed to pay for half of its construction.

Last year, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs denied those funds to the city, citing several "substantial" violations of the stringent rules governing how federal grants are spent, according to city documents.

But Mayor Tim Kant, who traveled to Montgomery last week, said he hopes to get the money after all. Kant said he will be talking with ADECA officials about getting the $30,000 he still feels is owed to the city.

"The recreation department is used to watching every nickel and dime. It’s the only way they’ve ever done anything," Kant said. It was some of those cost-cutting measures that ADEM officials said violated federal requirements, he said.

In August 2007, the city won a $38,000 grant through the National Park Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund. The grant required that the city pay a 50 percent match on the cost of the project, Kant said.

Two months later, the City Council announced that an anonymous donor had contributed $25,000 toward the skateboard park. Councilwoman Debbie Quinn and others also held fundraisers for its construction.

In February 2008, the City Council accepted East Coast Contracting’s low bid of $53,798. Construction started in early June and was soon finished.

The City Council approved a change order that month to the skate plaza project in the amount of $8,860, which would pay for additional work already done by the contractor. The contractor had applied an outdoor polish to all the concrete and installed metal edging on most of the slabs to prevent chipping and shattering.

In August of last year, ADECA Director Doni Ingram sent a letter to Kant, informing him that payment was being denied due to four "deficiencies in the procurement process for this project." They were:

• That the city called on Thompson Engineering to do the project’s engineering work without first inviting competitive bids.
• The bid documents for the project’s construction did not include a "clear and accurate description of the materials or services to be purchased with a firm-fixed price."
• None of the project’s contracts or other paperwork included required "federal language" spelling out remedies for breach of contract, compliance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, the Copeland "Anti-Kickback" Act and other statutes.
• The project change order approved by the City Council had violated the federal Recreation Programs Administrative Manual, which prohibits change orders of more than 10 percent of the total cost.

Kant said the first criticism, at least, appears to be invalid.

A contract for engineering and professional management services is exempt from Alabama’s competitive bid law, according to the website of the state Department of Examiners of Public Accounts.

"Thompson donated their services. You can’t get cheaper than free," Kant said. Kant said he hopes the city can somehow still correct the other problems set out in Ingram’s letter. The city has until June 11 -- the date the grant officially closes -- to do so, he said.

"We’ve handled millions of dollars in federal grants over the years, and this is the first time that I remember being denied the funds because of mistakes that were made," Kant said.

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