The EDA originally requested all projects be wrapped up by the end of this year, but after listening to the 16 project organizers, they’ll have another year and by then all financing and contracts must be complete — in writing.

The projects were awarded millions in state aid more than three years ago and many have not neared completion for a variety of reasons. The RCDA’s biggest problem were delays in court and the steel market, according to Schoonover.

“We were more than requested to go down to Charleston to have a review of our bridge grant project on Aug. 3,” Schoonover said, adding that articles in local newspapers sparked several calls from local residents who were curious about the grant situation.

He said several callers asked, “‘Are we not going to have the bridge? Are we going to lose the bridge?”

“The WVEDA (West Virginia Economic Development Authority) — so that everyone will know the process — they asked several questions when they were reviewing these projects that we had to respond to,” Schoonover said. “One of the questions that they asked was, ‘Do you have enough funding to complete the project? Are contracts in place to complete the project?’

“Well, the funding, yes, we could show them that we have enough funding to complete the project,” Schoonover said. “One thing we didn’t have though — and we answered a ‘no’ to — was that we had not let a contract that would then complete the project. Yes we’ve got the bridge contract let, which puts the bridge up but it doesn’t put the railroad track on top of the bridge. So the reason why we had to go is because that bridge isn’t complete until the railroad tracks are on.

“We have funding that we showed them on our balance sheet when we were down there, necessary to complete the construction of the railroad track on the bridge and connect it to the depot all the way over to the existing railroad track,” Schoonover said. “I also told them we had requested from Sen. Helmick (Sen. Walt Helmick, D-15th District) to put in the budget for the West Virginia Rail Authority, monies to complete the bridge as well.

Schoonover said the reason the RCDA looked to the Rail Authority for assistance “is because they are going to be the ultimate owner of the bridge. This was a sweetheart project for the state of West Virginia in doing the grant. It would help our community but then the state of West Virginia got the bridge. So it’s like it all funded through our development authority.

“I explained to the folks down there that we were delayed about 15 months after they had budgeted the project because it was taken to court because it wasn’t fair to everyone,” Schoonover said. “And there was an attorney who took it to the Supreme Court. There were some legislative changes in the process but during that process, we had put in a request for the remaining $500,000. During that period of time, we saw steel prices escalate considerably.”

Schoonover said the grant process “had some failings in the way it was done” it held the project up and at the same time “we had the steel market going against us.”

“But we did bid the project,” Schoonover said, but even the low bid was over the limit. After battling delays at almost every turn, Schoonover said, “We got back on track and we revisited the project ... .

“We made some key changes,” RCDA Director Jennifer Giovannitti added.

“We then got a bidder that was under our budget,” Schoonover said. “We had to make a change, we did take a railroad track out of it.”

Schoonover said two of the contractors expect their end of the contract to be finished — “and this is a realistic estimate — before the end of November. Now the billing to the WVEDA will likely be 90 to 95 percent complete. We’ll get bills from the construction folks and then we’ll bill the grant folks to get the money to pay them. So we’re looking at having most of the building done on this grant by the end of this year.

“The grant funding is supposed to run out on Jan. 29 and so they (WVEDA) were wanting to make sure that their monies were going to be spent or at least committed,” Schoonover said. “Some projects that they had in question were projects that have not even gone to bid yet.

“It went well,” Schoonover said. “They didn’t seem to quite ask when we would have the tracks on. I told them it was unlikely that we would put the tracks down in December or January, that just didn’t happen in Elkins.” Schoonover said track may put down between mid-March and mid-April. “There’s only about 1,100 feet of track that has to be laid. We’re not talking about a lot of track to be put down,” he said.

Giovannitti said, “There’s so much about this project, it’s really a unique and positive project. She said one of the major changes to the project includes using plate steel as opposed to rolled steel because of the significant prices. “Of the $1.5 million, over $1 million was just steel,” she said. “This is the first bridge to built for the state of West Virginia by a non-railroad company. We are making history with this project,” Giovannitti said. “It is a complicated project ... we made some very, very smart moves by rebidding and also by taking our time looking at the contractors that were truly capable of completing this project. And then of course, we bought ourselves some time in the steel market to get the project costs down.

“There’s so much complex information about this particular project and we’re making history by building this bridge in Elkins,” Giovannitti said.

The projects were among 48 that received funding from $224.8 million in state aid in 2003.