By Elizabeth Coss
A lawsuit against Youngstown State University has been dismissed following the university dropping all contract bids on the Arlington Parking Facility Project.
Despite evading legal litigation, YSU’s parking facility project will now be pushed back until next semester due to seasonal concerns.
Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. placed a lawsuit, temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against YSU for allegedly violating state bidding laws and its request for proposals.
To disperse the lawsuit, YSU retracted its bidding tabulation and dropped all contract bids for the project, preventing any party from officially being awarded the job.
Danny O’Connell, director of Support Services, said when all bids were rejected, the university didn’t feel the project would be completed in time.
“The reality was — when the lawsuit was filed — it was going to push us back,” O’Connell said. “We didn’t feel we could complete the project on time. Had we kept the bids awarded the way it was, we didn’t think we could complete the project before the bad weather came, so what we did was we rejected all bids and then we’re going to rebid the project in January.”
With the lot being delayed, O’Connell said there were pros and cons to the lot’s construction being pushed back.
O’Connell said there are other parking options in the works that are slightly behind but will be finished.
“The good thing is we have plenty of parking west of Fifth [Avenue], and there will be some advantages from the university when it’s all said and done,” O’Connell said. “If I could have had it done timely and knew it would be done before the weather got bad, that’s one thing. The delay isn’t going to hurt us in any type of major fashion.”
O’Connell said that there are other parking options in the works that are slightly behind schedule but will be finished by the end of the year.
“We just did two parking lots, we’re just finishing them up, they’re actually a little bit behind. Behind Enterprise, we’re putting in two smaller lots there,” O’Connell said.
Bids for the project will open to contractors in January.
