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Wlaf1450‘You (GCE) don’t know how to build an industrial building’- Dail Cantrell, School Board Attorney
By Charlotte Underwood
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- The Campbell County Board of Education met on Thursday afternoon to once again discuss the Jacksboro Elementary School Gym project and its lack of completion. The contractor GCE is saying the project is 98 percent complete, while the architect with Lewis Group says it is 80 to 85 percent complete.
Other issues brought up at the meeting include mortar that does not match on the outside of the building, gaps under doors, doorknobs left off doors and bleachers not being installed yet.
Disagreements, delays and change orders have followed the Jacksboro Gym project since it began in the summer of 2024.
After around 40 minutes of discussion on Thursday, Board Chairman Jeffrey Miller made a motion to table the issue until GCE Construction provides formal orders regarding a prompt pay act letter the company had sent, as well as a work stoppage letter.
Board attorney Dail Cantrell had requested the board meet in a special called meeting to approve pay application 9. There are several outstanding pay applications in 10, 11, and 12 as well, but Cantrell said the reason they were outstanding, is because the BOE gets a pay application each month and when pay application 9 did not get paid due to a dispute about an overcharge, that delayed the payment of 10, 11 and 12.
“I wanted us to have a vote on 9, because you had voted to take board action not to pay it until it was approved through the architect, which we now have. After you pay application 9, I recommend you go back to letting the architect handle it in house, and it can be opened back up if it is a problem,” Cantrell said.
Cantrell also brought up the mitigation clause in the contract regarding the damage done to the school’s gym floor.
“If a contractor causes damage, they get to mitigate it at their cost. No one disputes the gym floor was damaged, and it was a construction problem… We let it for bid, and the builder submitted the low bid, but the contract doesn’t allow that, they can either mitigate it at their cost, or they have to say they are not going to mitigate, and we can let it for bid. The insurance carrier has already denied the claim, so you are going to have to come up with a gym floor and you are at a terrible time because gym floors get backed up in the summer, I don’t know if we can get it built until fall break,” Cantrell said.
If GCE does not plan on mitigating it, it would free it up for a bid process. They would be excluded from bidding, according to Cantrell.
Another issue to address according to Cantrell is the “dirt issue.”
“I have asked on multiple occasions where the dirt has been removed to. The practice in Tennessee is it usually goes to a TDOT facility; it will typically hang out at a TDOT facility as fill dirt until a school or county has a need for the fill dirt, so you can’t just take the dirt away. I have asked who authorized the removal of the dirt and where it was taken to, the contract said it was supposed to go to a TDOT facility, that needs to be addressed,” Cantrell stated.
Cantrell said other than those two issues, after pay application 9 was taken care of, the other pay applications needed to be handled on a month-to-month basis.
Cantrell also told the BOE that they were “getting hammered on social media.”
“They can criticize you, but they can’t get out and make false allegations like you all have some political agenda, I think that is a violation of contract, you all hired these people, they work for you, you have not caused any problems for them and yet they make it out like you all are bandits; they are not inherently fair dealing with you and if this continues it would be my counsel to take the appropriate legal action to shut it down…You all have done nothing to slow this process down, this has been a contractor not giving any credence to what the architect says; you guys have done nothing wrong,” Cantrell said.
He also said the discolored mortar on the building was unacceptable and inexcusable.
“It can be fixed, you can redye the mortar, the brick does not need pulled out, but it should not be money that comes out of your pocket,” Cantrell said.
Director of Schools Charlotte McCoy brought attention to the variation of mortar discoloration on the brick building, as well as other issues such as the lack of bleachers being installed and the issue of the buckling gym floor.
“Bleachers were supposed to be installed by May 15th but still have not been installed. There are doorknobs still not placed on gym storage closet…there is an outside door with space enough under it for a snake to crawl,” McCoy said, adding that these were concerns that the JES principal had shared.
Board member Brandon Johnson asked the architects in their opinion how much of the project was done. Architects answered that in their opinion that it was 80 to 85 percent done.
Jonson said that the contractor was advertising that the project was 98 percent done and he said he didn’t know who to believe.
Cantrell said the architect was correct.
Emily Gaylor was at the meeting representing GCE Construction.
Chairman Miller asked the architect if the contract or specifications called for a different colored mortar. Thomas with Lewis Group said no.
Miller said that color variation on the mortar was not acceptable.
“We put in what was specified, we utilized what specified by the design team for the brick mortar,” Gaylor said.
“How do you feel about the color of that mortar not matching?” Miller asked Gaylor.
“I am not an architect … I don’t do design work, simply as a contractor we are obligated to build what we are contracted to do,” Gaylor responded.
“Common sense indicates to use the same color of mortar,” Cantrell said.
“That color is not acceptable. When people pull up to a $2.4 million dollar project, the brick should match and so should the mortar,” Miller said.
“I don’t disagree with you there sir, however, who is at fault for the choice,” Gaylor said.
“It sure wasn’t us, and the architect confirmed there is not a specification for a different color of mortar, so it is unacceptable,” Miller said.
Miller asked if she planned on mitigating the gym floor.
She said she had not received a copy of the information of the report from Corum Engineering on the gym floor for them to investigate that and have their own testing done.
“That information has not been provided to us,” Gaylor said.
Cantrell said it had been provided to their attorney Steve Hurst and due to litigation could not send it to Gaylor, but that he would send it again to Mr. Hurst.
The fact that GCE had sent a prompt pay notification act letter to the BOE was also discussed.
“Their attorney Steve Hurst told me the next day he was not aware that they were doing that and he agreed that it was not done appropriately. I have requested this at least three times with the release of that notification letter because you can’t issue a payment if they are going to take legal action under the prompt payment act. The other thing I requested has to do with the stop work notice that they sent, they can’t do that on a government job, and they have not stopped work, GCE has continued to work, which I applaud them for, that’s a positive. But we have to have those two items withdrawn before you issue any sort of pay, you are going to need to have that prompt pay act notification withdrawn. Their attorney can send a letter saying that and the same thing with the work stoppage notice and as today, we have not received that,” Cantrell said.
Miller made a motion to table the issue until the June meeting and “maybe by that time the BOE will have those orders.”
Gaylor said “the prompt pay act expressly states that failure of the architect or engineer to recommend payment does not absolve the entity from making said payment,” Gaylor said.
Cantrell said the first thing you have to do is request mediation with the architect before sending a prompt pay act letter.
“You still have to request a mediation. I am the one requesting the mediation, all you guys do is go online and blast these guys (BOE),” Cantrell said.
“Sir, I don’t think …. completing a project and continuing work when we have not received any payment,” Gaylor said.
“You can’t do the prompt pay act, without first requesting mediation on that issue, you don’t know what the law is, but you go on Facebook and call these guys liars, they have not done a single thing to get involved in this project, it’s just you all don’t know the contract and you don’t know how to build an industrial building,” Cantrell said.
Miller repeated his motion and asked if it was Cantrell’s recommendation that the BOE does not approve pay application 9 until the BOE receives the two formal orders regarding the prompt pay act and the work stoppage notice.
Miller’s motion to table this till the June meeting was approved unanimously.
Afterward, the BOE met in an executive session to continue discussions on the matter with its attorney. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-05/29/2026-6AM)