Lebanon takes step towards sports complex contract termination

Abbey Nutter, The Lebanon Democrat, Tenn.
Updated ·2 min read

Mar. 23—The Lebanon City Council approved the termination of a $14 million contract with Relyant Global on first reading Tuesday night after delays in the construction of the Lebanon Sports Complex.

For the termination of the contract to proceed, the city council will have to approve it on a second reading on April 2.

During a discussion of the contract at a council work session Monday night, city officials said that subcontractors working on the project were not being paid.

Chad Tindell, an attorney representing Relyant Global, said that the contract between his clients and the city stipulates that cancellation of the contract requires notice.

"Council's being noticed to terminate the contract when notice has not been properly given," Tindell said. "I think that's an improper action."

Lebanon City Attorney Andy Wright disagreed with Tindell.

"Notice will be provided pursuant to the provision of the contract once this council approves the termination," Wright said. "Providing notice now would be putting the cart before the horse in that situation."

"The last thing that Relyant Global wants to do is end up in a lawsuit that would cause any further delays to this project," Tindell said. "That's the last thing we want to do and not where we want this to go."

Lebanon Mayor Rick Bell invited Tindell and Wright to discuss the matter further after Tuesday night's meeting.

"It is my hope, honestly, that this gets worked out because you talked about delays with a lawsuit," Bell said. "Right now, there's a delay because nothing is happening, and we need something to happen."

Historic Lebanon Square Infrastructure Project

Lebanon Utilities Director Regina Santana said that the latest revisions to the Lebanon Square infrastructure project plan are currently being reviewed.

"Everybody's giving it one more look," Santana said. "We're trying to avoid some of the issues that we had in the square that we did (infrastructure improvements in), even though when you're working in an area like we've got, which (has) virtually no room to install even one utility, let alone trying to work around electric, water, sewer, gas and storm. It's not going to be without problems this next time too, but we're trying to eliminate those if we can."

She said a few corrections need to be made to the project before it's up for bid.

"We're making a few tweaks on the gas," Santana said. "There's some things that we took out (of the plan) that we decided to put back in along the outside perimeter of the square project itself as far as the interior alley."