Company frustrated by payment delay of Paw Paw project

Bill Manor, owner of Manor Concrete Enterprise, is angry that he is still waiting to be paid for a sidewalk job in Paw Paw that was finished on April 21.

Manor is owed $62,000 for the project, which was contracted for by the Town of Paw Paw. He said the payment delay is putting his company in jeopardy since he has had to borrow money to pay bills.

Manor was told last week that the money was on the way, but he is still critical about the long wait and how the situation has been handled.
Manor was scheduled to speak at Monday night’s Paw Paw Town Council meeting. He also called a number of state officials.

Manor wondered why it took from April 21 to June 7 for the work to be inspected. He also took issue with Paw Paw Mayor Alton Wolfe not returning his phone calls and not taking care of the paperwork correctly and sooner.

Wolfe declined to be quoted in the newspaper about the situation.
The town was awarded a Safe Routes to Schools grant for $79,200 for the sidewalk project from the State Department of Transportation in 2007.

Payment in progress

Brent Walker, speaking for the transportation department, said the invoice for the work came to them with improperly completed paperwork and was sent back to the Town of Paw Paw.

They now have the proper paperwork and a check will be processed in the next week or so, Walker said.

The payment process generally takes about a month from completion of work to issuance of a check. The length of the payment process for the Paw Paw sidewalk is not typical, he said.

The project

The project included a sidewalk, curb, gutter and drainage on Moser Avenue from the corner of Winchester Street to the corner of McCool Street.

Manor’s company donated extra square footage on the sidewalk project and were praised for the quality of their work, Manor said.

Manor had to put up a

bid bond, a performance bond and a payment bond, which are standard on
federal projects. He spent $3,800 out of his pocket for the bonds.
Manor signed the contract on March 29 and had 30 days to complete the work.

Workers were paid $40.80 an hour, the federal wage scale rate. About
seven workers were on the job and finished ahead of schedule. The company could have been docked $500 a day for each day past April 29.

Wolfe and state officials did a walk-through inspection of the project on June 7. There were two minor project details that Wolfe complained about, one of which was a drain inlet height being a little higher than another, he said.

Before signing off on the project, Wolfe also asked that some topsoil be replaced because it had a few terra cotta pipe pieces and some stone in it, Manor said.

Manor said his company put down three yards of new topsoil on the section in question on June 29. There is always a “punch list” of items that need attention after a project is completed, he said. He felt those issues shouldn’t have stopped payment.

Manor said he started calling the town about 30 days after the job was completed to see what the hold-up was. He is considering adding interest to the unpaid bill.