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.