Former contractors building a case against the City of Belleville

By Kristen Oelschlagel

The City of Belleville could be headed for a legal battle with the former contractors of the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre.

While The Atlas Corporation is saying non-payment is the issue, the city is claiming that Atlas was not doing the work required.

The $29 million dollar project was supposed to open in March of last year but because of delays the date was repeatedly pushed back. Now that the city has been granted occupancy of the building, it says the centre will open on August 20.

Until recently, both the city and the contractor would not give any details about the delays or issues between them.

Mark Fluhrer, Belleville’s director of recreation, culture and community services, still declines to give details about why it was kept quiet.

“We were in a legal phase at that point, all I can say is that we were in a legal situation,” Fluhrer said.

Andrew Famigliettei, president of The Atlas Corporation, said they will now see the city in court.

Fluhrer said the city is more than willing to go through to litigation if necessary.

Famiglietti said the main problem is financial issues, which started to arise about four months into the project.

“Non-payment was the issue. We still proceeded on (with the work) and then it came to a point where we got tired of all the games, we got tired of all the promises and everything else,” said Famiglietti.

Not only did the city start reducing payments, in over six months they did not make any payment said Famiglietti.

City officials are saying Atlas was paid the full amount for all of the work that was completed.

“What we have is a payment certifier, and the certifier is under contract to ensure all payments are made on work that’s completed and certify that it’s complete,” said Mark Fluhrer, Belleville’s director of recreation, culture and community services.

“As soon as we got a certification on the work that was completed we paid the full amount.”

Fluhrer said that they withheld $1.99 million for work that wasn’t completed under the contract or work that was defective or needed to be replaced.

“For example, our roof leaks a lot and needs to be replaced, we have a number of other issues with our mechanical systems and they needed to be corrected and fixed. We had emergency lighting that needed to be fixed and brought up to standard to meet the Ontario Building Code requirements, and we had fire separation issues that needed to be corrected. All of those things added up to $1.99 million, which we didn’t pay because it wasn’t complete.”

Famiglietti said the facility proves that they did the work.

“It’s all hocus pocus on their part. Go into the facility and take a look, they’ve been using the facility from last year. The city can say whatever they want to say, the proof’s in the pudding,” said Famiglietti.

He said that there are well over $15 million worth of charges placed on the project for all of the individuals that have not been paid.

“I used to meet with Mark Fluhrer and the mayor every two to three weeks. We’d do a walk through of the building, many times the mayor or Mark Fluhrer would bring me a cheque. They were squeezing money here and there,” Famiglietti said.

Fluhrer is calling the allegations of financial trouble ridiculous. He said Famiglietti just happened to come down when the cheque was due so they gave it to him to save time, rather then putting it in the mail but they have no financial problems whatsoever.

“Have you ever heard of a city not paying its bills? Have you ever heard of the government of Ontario not paying its bills? Have you ever heard of the government of Canada not paying its bills? It’s a ridiculous statement,” said Fluhrer.

He said they decided it was time to find a new contractor once they were able to get cooperation from all of the partners to finish the project by July 31.

“We were not seeing progress from Atlas to assist us in gaining occupancy by that deadline and the funding was at risk, the funding that was from our two partners the federal and provincial governments,” Fluhrer said.

Famiglietti said there were many other issues but he won’t get into the details because they are headed down a path of litigation.