City settles lawsuit with contractors for $570K
GREENSBORO - The city has agreed to pay nearly $600,000 to contractors involved in the Willow Oaks project, according to a settlement agreement.
The settlement, reached Oct. 31 and announced Tuesday night at the City Council meeting, also includes instructions that Triangle Grading and Paving will be paid an additional $159,775 to complete work at Willow Oaks.
Triangle Grading and Paving of Burlington received $550,000 in the settlement, and Mid-City Urban of Greensboro received $20,000, records show.
The complicated lawsuit, filed last year, includes multiple counterclaims and involved the two contractors, the city, the Greensboro Housing Authority and the Redevelopment Commission of Greensboro.
At its core, the lawsuit was about Triangle and Mid-City Urban alleging the city owed them money for work on Willow Oaks, a Greensboro Housing Authority redevelopment of land once occupied by the Morningside Homes public housing community. Today, the dour facades of public housing have been replaced by brightly colored bungalows and single-family homes.
But work had stopped on the project because of the lawsuit, said Terry Wood, the city's attorney.
The lawsuit mostly revolved around the cost to remove soil at the site, he said. There ended up being more than originally anticipated, and the two sides differed over the cost to remove the additional soil, Wood said.
"We settled for something less than what they wanted," he said.
The additional work agreed to in the settlement is to finish hauling off materials from the site and to complete foundation work, he said.
Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 373-7064 or jennifer.fernandez@news-record.com
