Hatboro Officials Mum on Firehouse Project

By all accounts, the volunteers of Enterprise Fire Company have a nearly completed 2,500-square-foot addition on the back of the firehouse that they cannot use.

The contractor for the roughly $887,000 project, Mark Gill of Titanium Inc., since August has had two pages of punch list of items in need of reconciling. Gill told Patch in July that there was less than two days of work left. Yet, three months later, the building addition sits, unusable and unoccupied.

And, Hatboro officials have declined to say when the addition will be complete, what steps are being taken to urge Gill to finish the work, or if the more than year-long delays have compromised a state grant reimbursement of $500,000.

Borough Manager Fred Zollers, who is also a member and former chief of Enterprise Fire Company, said he has been trying to schedule a meeting between the fire company, the borough and Gill to review the punch list items and to see what the “next steps in construction would be.” 

In terms of the work itself, Zollers said of Gill, “He said he’s almost done.”

Hatboro Borough Council President John Zygmont declined to comment.

“The firehouse project's status is the same as it has been for the last several months,” Zygmont wrote in an e-mail to Patch. “Due to the issue of litigation, I feel uncomfortable discussing the matter.”

Zygmont directed inquiries to borough solicitor Christen Pionzio, who said that, “lawyers are involved so I can't comment or answer your questions.” 

Meanwhile, Gill, when asked when the project would conclude, reiterated his sentiment from July: “Probably when they pay me.”

Hatboro officials decided in May to hold the remaining 10 percent owed - $87,989.21 – as well as 10 percent of a previously approved $126,891.27 payment until the expansion was satisfactorily completed. That decision followed concerns expressed during a public council meeting that Gill, due to his alleged failure to comply with state-mandated guidelines, had jeopardized the state’s $500,000 reimbursement.

Since beginning in March 2011, the project, which was originally supposed to conclude in August 2011, has been plagued by construction delays. Officials said in May that Gill had not completed his portion of state paperwork; had issues meeting prevailing wage guidelines required for state-funded construction; and did not immediately comply with the use of specific steel in the building’s elevator. 

Enterprise Fire Company President Chris Gowen, who, in July chalked up the project to date as being one of “poor workmanship,” said only that the progress of late has been “frustratingly slow.”