The SCC sent notice to Hunt Construction Corporation, of Princeton, assessing $749,000 for failure to complete Newark’s Science Park High School in the time frame required under contract. Damages were assessed through January 31, 2007 and continue to accumulate.

The project was supposed to have been fully completed by July 15, 2006, but many items still remain unfinished. The school opened for students after a temporary certificate of occupancy was received on November 14.

The effort is the SCC's latest legal effort to recover funds on behalf of taxpayers. In late December, the Attorney General's Office filed suit on the SCC's behalf to begin an initiative to recover costs for projects affected by professional design errors. Earlier that month, an initiative was launched to sue for the costs of environmental cleanups incurred in connection with new school construction.

"Some delays may be unavoidable in projects," said Scott Weiner, chief executive officer of the corporation. “But in some cases, a contractor should be responsible for such costs. We will aggressively seek to recover costs in those instances on behalf of New Jersey taxpayers."

Under contract, much of the work on Science Park was supposed to be substantially complete by February or March. The remainder was required to be ready for a temporary certificate of occupancy by June 30. The SCC has assessed damages from the various dates through the school’s November 14 opening.

Final completion on the project should have occurred in a staggered time frame ranging from March through July. Yet a 19-page list of "punchlist" items remains incomplete.

Damages regarding final completion have been calculated through January 31, 2007 and continue to accumulate at $1,500 per day.

In late December, the Attorney General's Office sued on behalf of the SCC to recover more than $3.5 million from STV Architects Inc. of Newark and El Taller Colaborativo of Newark, an engineering firmed hired by STV as a subcontractor on the Mount Vernon Elementary School project in Irvington. The four-count suit involves structural and design defects.