Mike Odom

modom@gulfcoastnewspapers.com

Editor’s note: This is the second article about funding problems at the city’s skate park. An initial in-depth story on this subject is Skating - with ethics, from March, 2010.

FAIRHOPE, Ala. - The city has received an extension to June 1 next year for additional construction at the city’s skateboard park and for reimbursement for related costs from a state agency that has already disallowed past repayment of costs, alleging “deficiencies in the procurement process,” when the concrete plaza on Volanta Avenue was first built.

Those alleged deficiencies cost the city some $35,000 in reimbursement costs of the total $71,715 project when the skate park was completed in 2009, according to a Dec. 10 letter sent by the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs to local citizen activist Paul Ripp.

That letter from Rob Grant, ADECA’s recreation programs manager, stated the city had applied in July 2009 for reimbursement equaling a 50-percent match in costs for work done pursuant to a grant of $38,000 awarded by the agency to the city on July 17, 2007, for the skate park.

“After a thorough review of the request and supporting documentation, it was determined that $71,472.83 was not eligible for reimbursement,” Grant’s letter states. “The details of this decision were outlined in a letter sent to Mayor Tim Kant on Aug. 10, 2009.”

Grant’s letter stated the city then asked if it had any options regarding development at the skate park.

“The City was advised that the items submitted for reimbursement on June 29, 2009 could not be considered for reimbursement; however if there were other features that could be constructed at the skate park, those items could be considered for reimbursement assuming that procurement, bidding, and contracting laws were followed.”

The agency’s letter stated the city had asked for an extension of time to construct those additional features and file for reimbursement, which was approved through June 1 next year by the National Park Service that funded the project through ADECA.

The most recent proposals for additional work brought before the City Council and Financial Advisory Committee this year by Councilwoman Debbie Quinn, who helped obtain the initial grant, have been rejected by the council and FAC.