EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) – Court documents show Peyronnin Construction filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Monday.
That means several multi-million dollar construction projects are in the lurch, including the McLean County Regional Water Treatment Plant, the International Blue Grass Museum, Owensboro Community and Technical College, and a gravity-fed sewer line in Mt. Vernon.
Owensboro Community and Technical College – $12-million contract
International Bluegrass Museum – $9.6-million contract
McLean County water treatment plant – $8.5-million contract
Mt. Vernon gravity-fed sewer line – $860,000 contract
Owensboro city attorney Ed Ray says as of Tuesday morning construction on the museum was shut down and the project will be turned over to the surety company, The Great American Insurance Company. He says they will be responsible for finding a “new contractor at the contractor price.”
Ray says the city gets a lot of pushback over using performance bonds for projects like this, but he says this is the perfect example of why they exist. The bond is like an insurance policy and it means Owensboro won’t be out any money now that the contractor hired to do the project has folded.
Museum Project Director Ted Lolly says the news came as a “total surprise” because the company has been in business for at least 70 years. Lolly says construction of the museum is only 20 percent done, but he says the city has a surety bond for this type of situation. He says while Peyronnin’s bankruptcy will ultimately slow construction, the city will be okay financially. McLean County Judge Executive Kelly Thurman says the water plant project engineer called him Tuesday morning and told him about the bankruptcy filing. He says he was shocked by the news.
Work on the plant has come to a halt and Judge Thurman expects crews to pack up and leave in the next few days. The bankruptcy isn’t going to impact the project getting done or add any extra cost because the county has a performance bond in place. A new contractor will be selected to finish the work. Judge Thurman says the water plant is almost finished. It was supposed to be completed this spring, but with the bankruptcy filing, Thurman expects the plant to be up and running this fall.
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