Marengo Management pulls out of Historic School renovation project

New Kent Supervisors are headed back to square one on converting the county’s Historic School into an elementary school in the wake of the project’s contractor pulling out.

In an April 28 letter to county administrator Rodney Hathaway, Marengo Management Corporation president E. Taylor Moore Jr. announced his company is withdrawing from the renovation project. Supervisors at today’s work session accepted Moore’s letter.

The company president cited two major factors playing into the decision to terminate. First, Moore complained that the project scope has changed frequently. He noted the first layout called for an upper elementary school housing grades 3-5, but then the scope abruptly changed into a full K-5 school.

“We feel this issue alone justifies the withdrawal of the proposal,” he wrote.

But then Moore took issue with which government body, the board of supervisors or the school board, is in charge of overseeing the project.

“During our meetings with staff and the New Kent Schools over the past several months, it has become apparent that while the Board of Supervisors control the project budget, the schools seem to control the project scope, making the county’s fulfillment of their contractual obligations a challenge,” he wrote.

While supervisors chose not to comment, Hathaway addressed the future of the building and areas of concern to be addressed by the board.

“Right now, we don’t know what is going to happen,” he said. “Unfortunately this has happened and the board will have a lot to think about.”

As for the building itself, the county administrator added comments that there is no clear direction for future action.

“I don’t know what supervisors are planning to do,” Hathaway added. “I can only tell you that they are going to look at all possible options on the issue.”

The Historic School was scheduled to open in July 2015 as a third elementary school for the county.

When contacted, superintendent of schools Rick Richardson said, “I have no comment on Mr. Moore’s perception of why he chose to withdraw. The school board looks forward to working in a collaborative way with the Board of Supervisors to meet the space and facility requirements for our growing school population, as we have continued to do over the past several months.”

Marengo Management’s decision does not affect the completion of the South Building portion of the project which is currently underway.