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JASPER, Tenn. Marion County government has sued a Chattanooga construction company over a new heath department building under construction. Records show a stop work order was issued by county officials in April, shortly after McBrayer Construction began work on the 660-thousand-dollar building in Jasper. Building inspectors claimed McBrayer didn't properly install structural supports in the concrete pad of the building and failed to install wire mesh in the pad as the architect's plans required. The company sued in July, claiming Marion County breached its contract and owed the company 180-thousand dollars for work already done. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports a lawyer for McBrayer didn't return phone calls seeking comment on Friday. Copyright 2006 Associated Press.
THE dearth of funds has been variously fingered as the major problem besetting the construction industry. The plethora of uncompleted and abandoned projects that dot the nation's landscape has often been traced to this factor. Indigenous construction companies have been worst hit, hence, many of them have folded up, giving way to multinational construction companies who are often backed financially by their home governments. Both the Federal and state governments have often hinged their preference for expatriate construction companies on the fact that their indigenous counterparts lack the equipment to execute complex jobs. But how can they effectively compete with these offshore funded companies when borrowing from commercial banks is usually at cut-throat interest rates. Built environment professionals who have been badly affected by this scenario have not rested on their oars in a bid to float a specialized bank that would be sympathetic to the cause of construction industry operators.
In these parts, cheek-by-jowl with the Canadian border, a few hardy survivalists dig in against an attack of black helicopters manned by foreigners working for the United Nations in cooperation with the sneaky Canadians. Here in sophisticated Bellingham, we call them cranks. But wait, they may be right after all, and they seem to have encouragement from that most revered of institutions, the Department of Homeland Security, not to mention the White House. I speak of the Secure Border Initiative Net (SBInet in gov-speak), which has our major defense contractors drooling at the easy money ahead. A contract for $2.5 billion will be awarded to one of the big defense consortiums later this month — and that will lead to more, and more, and after a while it could turn into real money.
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