Community center completion slips to early 2024 on switchgear delay

SUDBURY — November 14, 2022 — Fairbanks Community Center completion slides to January-February 2024 as switchgear delay swallows other setbacks. Sudbury's combined facilities director, Sandra, told the Council on Aging on Nov. 14 that a 40-week wait on electrical switchgear has pushed substantial completion roughly 13 weeks past the previously expected September-October 2023 window. A Nov. 2 strike on an undocumented six-inch PVC fire-suppression line flooded the gym foundation and cost about a week; earlier loam-soil and buried-debris finds generated claims of 20 and 71 delay days respectively. Members said all three user groups are over budget on furniture — one by more than 20 percent — and rejected two sample multi-purpose chairs as inferior to existing senior center seating. One member said he has been asking for nine months for the dollar gap on furniture and AV: "We could have started a fundraising campaign nine months ago." A $222,000 Mass Development taxi grant, shared with Acton, Bolton and Stow, is restricted to taxi service and cannot fund Uber rides; Go Sudbury has 119 Uber riders and 167 taxi users registered.