Punch list still unfinished for Saugus middle school

SAUGUS – It has been 10 months since the ribbon cutting celebrating the re-dedication of the renovated Belmonte Middle School, but the final to-do list that would complete the project 100 percent has yet to be completed.”The Belmonte project that will never end,” said School Committee Chairman Wendy Reed during a building maintenance subcommittee meeting last week.The deadline to finish the punch list was July 9, Reed added. She said she thought the project manager met with Belmonte head custodian Mike Maybee, who also sits on the subcommittee, and that the list would be completed soon, but it hasn’t happened.Maybee said they met, but he hasn’t seen anyone working in the building.”You’d think they would want to be done with this,” said committee member and Curriculum Coordinator Laurie Gallivan.According to Maybee, it is a list of simple items: doors that don’t lock properly, a sink with no hot water, three missing cafeteria carts and kitchen fans that don’t work.”They’re little things, but it’s all brand-new and they should work properly,” Maybee said.Also, his list of little things taken all together adds up to more than three pages and range from a leaky skylight and cracked toilets to a bad batch of thermostats that need to be swapped out and sooty hand prints left on a wall by workers.”Clean the hand prints off the walls? This is not rocket science,” said committee member Michael Procopio.Maybee acknowledged that they are mostly issues that the custodians could fix, but under the School Building Authority program, they are not allowed to because the items are technically part of the renovation project, which is partially funded through the state. The project must be approved by the state-sanctioned project manager and contractors under SBA guidelines.Reed said part of the problem is getting subcontractors to come back, but the consequences could be costly if things aren’t addressed soon.”There will be sanctions,” she said. “The project manager will lose money. We can’t take it away, but the SBA can.”Reed set the next building maintenance meeting for Sept. 12.”And hopefully we’ll have good news on the close out of the Belmonte Middle School and that the handprints are gone,” she said.