Playing Field Torn Up Again to Smooth Dips : Construction: Grass planted in the summer has been scraped out for a new seeding. The school district and contractor are discussing who will pay for the repair.

SANTA MONICA —  The ground inside Santa Monica High School’s new track had to be bulldozed and seeded with grass for a second time this month to repair what school officials said was a botched construction job left behind by an insolvent contractor.

Workers spread 300 tons of gravel and topsoil over the field at Pico Boulevard and 4th Street last week after scraping up grass that had been planted in the summer.

Meanwhile, athletic teams are scrambling to schedule practice time on two remaining fields. The school’s marching band, forced to practice later in the evening on a poorly maintained field, stumbles in the dark.

“Everyone is very frustrated,” Principal Nardy Samuels said. “We were hoping it would be available when school started in September. Now I don’t even ask anymore.”

The $500,000 project to upgrade the high school track and athletic field is part of a $75-million facilities improvement program funded by Proposition ES, a local bond measure approved by voters in 1990.

Workers bulldozed the old track and athletic field late last year. They installed a 400-meter, polyurethane-coated track, goal posts, field lights and bleachers. They smoothed and seeded the area inside the track to establish a single large playing field.

When they were finished, school district officials were satisfied with everything except the playing field.

“There were uneven spots,” said Bill Bonozo, manager of the reconstruction program for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. “If there was someone running on the field, it could cause them to turn an ankle.”

Before subcontractors could correct the problem, however, the general contractor in charge of the project, Taylor-Shafer Inc., stopped paying them, Bonozo said.

As a result, the unpaid workers walked off the job.

“Taylor-Shafer indicated to the district that they were insolvent,” Bonozo said.

Rick Sletten, contracts manager for Taylor-Shafer, said Wednesday that the Stanton-based company had experienced a “cash-flow crunch” in recent months because of disputes involving several major projects and had been forced to turn over its accounts payable on the Santa Monica job to its bonding agent.

Sletten said the field was built according to the district’s specifications and attributed the problems to flaws in the drainage design. He said Taylor-Shafer officials pointed out the flaws to district officials and said he does not think that his company should have to pay for the repairs.

It will cost $45,000 to redo the turf area, Bonozo said. Much of that will be covered by a contract retainer fee of $28,000, which was withheld in case the project was not completed to the district’s satisfaction.

District staff members are working with the company that bonded the Taylor-Shafer contract for the $17,000 difference.

“I don’t foresee any problems with getting that $17,000,” Assistant Supt. Arthur Cohen said. “It’s not unusual for bond companies to step in. . . . The point is that the district is not going to accept a faulty product. We’re going to work this thing through until we get an acceptable piece of work.”

The track field project is the first glitch to beset the reconstruction program, Bonozo said.

Construction projects began throughout the school district in the summer of 1991. About 75 projects are finished, ranging from sewer line repairs to a large roofing program that is 90% complete. The roofing program alone consisted of more than 200 contracts.

Other completed projects include rehabilitating the Lincoln Childcare Center by Lincoln Middle School and the administrative office at Cabrillo Elementary School.

In all, the reconstruction program is about 12% complete, Bonozo said.

Because the recession has slowed construction activity in the region, contractors are making lower bids to win contracts and the district is saving money, Bonozo said.

Bonozo said the athletic field should be ready in time for track and soccer season in the spring.

Meanwhile, the 95-member marching band will continue practicing on a pothole-ridden field at the north end of the campus, band Director Terry Sakow said. There are no field markings for members to position themselves by, and Sakow can barely make out their marching patterns through the dark.

“You’re expected to put on a good show, and the coaches are expected to have good teams,” Sakow said. “But the field situation is making it pretty rough on all of us.”