A Senate committee voted Thursday to subpoena Public Works Commissioner Darryl Smalls to find out more about why work on Frederiksted Health Center’s Ingeborg Nesbitt Clinic in the town of Frederiksted has been delayed and when to expect work to really begin.
Closed since April 2008 for mold remediation and renovations expected to take three or four months, the Frederiksted Health Center has been operating out of the Herbert Grigg Home for the Aged ever since. While the clinic is serving a larger number of patients at that location, many of its old Frederiksted patients have been lost in the shuffle.
Vera Falu, director of the Grigg Home, said the facility cannot add sorely needed new long-term care beds until its otherwise welcome guests leave.
Changes in estimates of what needs to be done and struggles in coming up with enough funds for the work have caused requests for proposals to be delayed several times. In October 2008, Gov. John deJongh Jr. personally intervened and set a 30-day deadline to resolve the issues. Seven months later, in May of this year, requests for proposals were issued for mold remediation and renovation. But they were subsequently withdrawn for revision and as of Oct. 21 no work had begun.
Masserae Sprauve-Webster, the center’s director, said RFPs for both the initial mold remediation and the renovations to follow were prepared by an Atlanta company; JSA Engineering, and released in July, but were withdrawn when it was found changes were needed. A new RFP for the mold remediation went out Oct. 8 and talks with potential bidders will start shortly.
"But we have been informed that the RFP for the renovations is still undergoing revisions," Webster said.
She said she had limited information about the specifics of the work, deferring to Public Works for in-depth answers.
"Public Works and their in-house competent engineering team are responsible for this project and are the lead group on this project," she said.
Smalls wrote the committee saying he had a scheduling conflict and would not appear. He also said he would not testify until after a contractor is selected.
"This project is in the bid process phase and cannot be discussed until the process is finalized," Smalls wrote.
The senators were frustrated by the lack of information.
"For the life of me, Public Works does this (RFP process) on a daily basis," Sen. Nereida "Nellie" O’Reilly said. "This is routine. What exactly is the challenge? You are the leadership of the center. At least you should be at the table and informed of what is happening," she said to Webster.
Webster speculated part of the problem may be the engineering firm was in Atlanta and communication was primarily by telephone and email, slowing the process and hindering communication. She believed an RFP would be forthcoming shortly and renovation work ought to begin by the start of next year and be complete three to four months later. Meanwhile, mold remediation would begin soon. But she said Public Works would be better able to answer.
Sen. Usie Richards said he was not satisfied with the reasons given by Smalls for not testifying and made a motion to subpoena Smalls, Public Works engineers and management at JSA Engineering, to testify at a hearing Nov. 4. The motion passed without dissent.
Voting yea were Richards, Sens. Craig Barshinger, Neville James, Shawn-Michael Malone and Patrick Sprauve. Absent were Sens. Louis Patrick Hill and Alvin Williams. O’Reilly attended the meeting but is not a member of this committee.
