Dive Brief:
- The Susquehanna Art Museum (SAM) in Harrisburg, PA, has $1.2 million remaining in state funding, and both lender Fulton Bank and contractor JEM Group believe they should receive the money first, ABC27 reported.
- The attorney for JEM, Timothy Woolford, told ABC27 that, according to the contract between SAM and JEM, the money is earmarked for reimbursement of construction costs, and he believes that SAM is withholding payment from contractors because they fear a nonpayment lawsuit from Fulton.
- The agency handling the project is the Dauphin County Industrial Redevelopment Authority, but the agency has asked courts to intervene. A judge will likely schedule a hearing this week for arbitration.
Dive Insight:
Woolford believes that Fulton and SAM should take their dispute to another venue and that taxpayer-funded state grant money should not go to a bank but to JEM, which actually did the work on the museum, according to ABC27.
"Many small business, they need the funds," Woolford said. "They did the work; they’re entitled to be paid. The bank can fight it out with the borrower in a different setting. As far as the construction, it should be paid for."
And even though Mayor Eric Papenfuse cut the blue ribbon to officially open SAM in January, he is no fan of state-funded museum projects, ABC27 reported, and, in a thinly veiled acknowledgment of SAM’s money woes, he said that the museum could be a success — with enough public and tourist support.
"I think that there are a variety of options available that allow the museum to continue, but it’s also going to require generosity of the people," he said. "The people are going to have to fund the museum if they want to see the museum continue."