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Trumbull County terminates two contracts with Marucci and Gaffney, files suit
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The Trumbull County commissioners have terminated contracts with Youngstown company Marucci & Gaffney for sewer projects the company constructed in Kinsman and Vienna townships and filed a lawsuit in common pleas court.
The actions came Monday morning, when the commissioners voted 3-0 to terminate the contracts. Attorneys filed the $1.3 million breach-of-contract lawsuit a short time later.
“No one wins when you go to court,” Commissioner Dan Polivka said after the termination vote. He was “adamant” that Trumbull County Highway and Sanitary Engineer Randy Smith “meet halfway” with Marucci & Gaffney to try to resolve the dispute short of legal action, “but it sounds like they exhausted all options,” Polivka said.
Smith took over as sanitary engineer after the commissioners were asked and repeatedly granted change orders for the projects, raising the cost $320,000 for the Vienna project and $1,057,000 for the Kinsman project.
The commissioners hired Atty. Joseph Cavasinni of Cleveland to advise the county regarding discussions with Marucci & Gaffney.
Cavasinni and Smith allege that Marucci & Gaffney’s work is fraught with substandard work, including sewer lines that are not level, as evidenced by videos from inside the pipes showing water at various depths.
Smith said Monday it’s unclear whether termination of the contracts will result in a lengthy delay in the completion of the projects, though the fall weather may hamper further progress on paving and landscaping left unfinished.
Smith said the county withheld some of the funds to Marucci & Gaffney because of the dispute.
The lawsuit names as defendants Marucci & Gaffney and Western Surety Co. of Chicago, which is the provider of the performance bond for the Vienna project, known as the Little Squaw Creek Sanitary Sewer Interceptor Phase 4.
The suit says Marrucci & Gaffney failed to perform the Vienna project according to the contract, and Western Surety Co. failed to pay the county the $1.3 million in damages it demanded.
Atty. Peter Welin of Columbus, who represents Marucci & Gaffney, said he would not comment on the lawsuit but said: “For the most part, both [sewer systems] are ready to use.”
A call to a spokesman for Western Surety Co. was not immediately returned Monday afternoon.