Lower Merion Township will have to pay out an additional $900,000 for the Ludington Library project after an arbitrator recently ruled against it in a long-running dispute with contractors.

The library has been re-opened for nearly four years now, writes Richard Ilgenfritz of Mainline  Media News.

The final tally of the renovation costs is now approximately $10.8 million.

According to Dan Bernheim, chairman of the Board of Commissioners’ Legal Affairs Committee, the dispute started due to what he called “substantial delays” in the project. In particular, he said the delays by the plumbing contractor, Altchem Environmental Services, were a major factor in those delays. He described the performance of Altchem as “nothing other than dismal.”

In the end, Bernheim said the plumbing contractor ended up filing for bankruptcy while the bonding company that acted as surety for the work also went insolvent, he said.

According to Ilgenfritz, the township is unable to appeal the ruling.

“This is an embarrassment for the township,” Lower Merion Commissioner Scott Zelov said, adding that the Ludington Library project was a poorly managed job.

Click here to read more about the Ludington Library project from Mainline Media News.