Arlington County's new fire station on South Hayes Street was supposed to open this year as a state-of-the-art tribute to the firefighters of Engine Company No. 5, the first responders to the fiery scene at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
 
Today, the $4.3 million building sits incomplete and nearly abandoned, the construction site shuttered since the general contractor was fired in June. Inside, black mold grows on the walls. Shoddy brickwork on a curved wall above a set of glass windows is visible from the street.
What went wrong with Fire Station No. 5 -- a messy battle that has included charges and countercharges of malfeasance between Arlington County and Dynasty Construction Inc. -- will probably one day be decided by a judge.
 
But for now, Arlington County has a decaying building that may cost as much as $2.5 million to repair and complete, a bill that could be passed on to county taxpayers, pending the outcome of a settlement with the contractor's insurance company. The situation has become an unusual black eye for a county with a reputation for good management and careful planning.
 
Firefighters who have observed the drama say privately that the county has only itself to blame. Records show that when the county awarded the contract to Dynasty in October 2003, officials were deeply enmeshed in a battle with the contractor over the remodeling of the Arlington Arts Center, which has had similar mold problems and years of delays.
 
"Very simply, we've had a contractor who failed to perform," County Manager Ron Carlee told the County Board during a recent discussion about appropriating emergency funds for the firehouse's repair.
 
This week, Carlee declined requests for an interview and would only submit written answers through a spokeswoman.
 
"This is a contractor who had previously done good work but had been in a serious deterioration stage," Carlee told the board. "We tried to work with them, but we got to the point where we just couldn't, and we decided to terminate."
 
The president of the Bethesda firm, John Barrett III, denied that his company is at fault and said that county workers caused the delays in both projects by failing to get construction permits and other approvals on time.
 
Dynasty has completed or is working on five school construction projects in Montgomery and Fairfax counties that have not had serious problems, officials said. Nor were there serious problems with Dynasty's work on Swanson Middle School in Arlington.
 
Barrett said he now regrets his decision to bid for the firehouse project in summer 2003, when his relationship with the county was growing more acrimonious by the day. But the allure of building a tribute for the heroes of Sept. 11 was too strong, Barrett said.
 
"In hindsight I should have never gone there, but it was a pride-oriented thing with me," Barrett said. "There was a lot of pride in the fact that we were going to be making that fire station. . . . It was special. Those guys were so brave. But it turned into a disaster."
 
The current firehouse -- a low-slung brick building just south of Pentagon City shopping mall -- holds a special place in the hearts of many nearby residents. Locals flocked there in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, working day and night to organize the massive outpouring of food and donations that streamed in.
 
Arlington County and Dynasty finalized the contract to build the fire station -- a 17,000-square-foot "green" building with four bays and high-tech touches including a chemical decontamination area -- in October 2003.
 
Records show that the county awarded the contract despite the fact that officials were well aware of the trouble Dynasty had with the $5.5 million renovation of the Arlington Arts Center in the historic Maury School. The arts facility did not receive a permanent occupancy permit until this November, more than two years late.
 
County e-mails show that delays, mold problems and other disputes seriously hampered progress on the arts center. Barrett said rainy weather and the county's three-month delay in getting construction permits contributed to the slowdown.
 
Despite the problems at that site, David Alberts of the county Office of Support Services wrote a July 2003 letter to Barrett saying the county would accept his bid on the fire station if he met certain management requirements.
 
Alberts wrote that the "bigger concern" is that Dynasty complete the project in "450 calendar days."
 
"Our concern is well grounded by our experience with Dynasty in the extensive and on-going delays for the Arlington Arts Center project," Alberts wrote.
 
County spokeswoman Diana Sun said the county was looking into the disputes on the arts center when Dynasty submitted the low bid for the fire station.
 
Dynasty could not begin work until December 2003 because the county did not issue its construction permits until then, Barrett said, but delays and friction began almost immediately.
Barrett blamed the careless brickwork on a bad subcontractor; the brickwork will have to be torn down.
 
The two sides have been squabbling over the roof -- which is only partially complete and could be a big reason for the mold -- for months. The county said Dynasty's failure to finish the roof was one reason why they were terminated from the contract. Barrett claims his company was fired before it could get the roof done. The county put a temporary cap on the roof last month.
A key issue now is who will pay for the mistakes that were made. The county said the bonding company will pay for repairs as well as the fees of an engineering firm hired to figure out how to fix the building.
 
But Anne Watson, a spokeswoman for Great American Insurance Co., said that although her firm will take over completion of the project, it does not agree with the county's termination of the contractor. This dispute could leave the responsibility for paying at least part of the repair bills with county taxpayers.
 
"I don't think anyone knows at this point what the extent of the problems are on this building," Watson said. "We obviously want this thing finished in an equitable manner. We think there is accountability on the county's part, and clearly that's going to have to be recognized by the county."
 
Meanwhile, neighbors -- who hoped to have brand-new digs for their neighborhood heroes by this point -- are wondering how much longer they'll have to look at the shuttered construction site, with its walls covered in Tyvek wrap and mounds of dirt.
 
"Of course we're upset," said Robert Phillips, a retired admiral who lives five blocks away. "It's important to the neighborhood and the federal government. . . . I expect better oversight about how my money's being spent."
 
Carlee told the board this year that there were "lessons learned" from the situation.
 
"We know what we've got to do is to pay closer attention to the exact wording and detail of our contracts . . . what we expect of our architects and the quality of plans and close supervision of the projects," Carlee said. "We try and learn from each of them, but in the end, though, you can't be guaranteed you won't get a bad contractor."
 

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