The last time we saw Guilford County leaders and construction company Samet Corp. representatives in the same room together was in early 2023 in the Board of Commissioners meeting room when the commissioners voted to kill a $20-million-plus contract with the company. That contract called for Samet to demolish the old jail in downtown Greensboro and build a new Law Enforcement Center in its place.
After that giant fallout, the big question was whether or not Samet would file a lawsuit against Guilford County – and it looks now like Samet will not.
If they do, it would be pretty awkward since the county and Samet are working together on a new project – the construction of the planned Windsor Chavis Nocho Community Complex.
However, it doesn’t seem to be the case that the county and Samet have kissed and made up. It seems more like a case of necessity makes strange bedfellows.
The City of Greensboro and Guilford County are working jointly on the Windsor project and, since the city selected Samet as the Construction Manager at Risk for the job in the late summer of 2022 – before the company’s blow-up with the county commissioners – it looks like Samet Corp. and Guilford County will be sharing a bed at the inn, but only because there’s no other option.
When Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston was asked this week if this signaled the renewal of a positive relationship between Guilford County and Samet Corp., Alston said he had no comment on the situation. When pushed, he reiterated that he had nothing to say on the matter.
So far this century, the Rhino Times can count on one hand the number of times the very talkative Alston hasn’t had a comment on a situation.
Here’s a description from Guilford County of the coming 65,000-square-foot facility: “The communities that are served by the current Windsor Recreation Center, Vance Chavis Library, and Nocho Park have flourished for decades but have also seen transitions to lack of access to necessary services and economic impact. With a vision and change to meet the needs of the Greensboro community, Greensboro Public Libraries and Parks and Recreation have set out to create a centralized community hub to meet the ever-growing and changing population of the surrounding area while providing service delivery in a way that has never been done.”
In other words, the new Windsor Chavis Nocho Community Complex is meant to bring together the elements of a park, a recreation center and a library. together to serve as a community resource and convey the “unique story of the community.”
Neither Guilford County officials nor Samet Corp. ever fully revealed the cause of the fallout between the two partners in early 2023 and the pursuant anger, however, it is known that the disagreement was related in some way to the amount of minority-business participation in the project.
Samet, in partnership with United Maintenance Group and Cate Services, is currently assisting in pre-qualifying companies to work as subcontractors on the Windsor project, which has a construction budget of $65 million.
Another DEI project. I hope Samet brings their entire legal department as they should know by now what they are dealing with.
65 million. Nothing to see here…….
Happens all the time. The city found out there are no minority owned businesses that can do the job. They try and make those who win the contracts subcontract minority and women owned businesses.
Often there are no WMBE (Women and Minority Owned Businesses) that can even do the work. This drives the cost much higher and costs the taxpayers millions more than necessary every year.
Samet likely pulled because they are legally responsible for the work that is completed. It ties any businesses hands and finances when they have to comply with these ridiculous DEI policies.
Go back to simply using the best company with the best bid who can actually complete the job and save taxpayers money. All this extra politically correct garbage to force contracts to WMBE even if they are double or triple the cost is wrong.
The Samet and City issues only highlight this ignored reverse discrimination that happens every day.
The folks noting the economic impact to ‘their’ community would do well to note who ‘their’ community supports and votes for in local and national elections. Those politicians set the foolish policies we all suffer under.
I have been in commercial subcontracting for 27 years. The idea that all project bids should be examined on an equal basis IS THE IDEAL DREAM SETUP for all of us. I applaud that effort. But, this has to be a two-way street. So if I am asked to bid, I also should have my pricing examined equally with minority contractors. If the process is fair, and it turns out that every low bidder, in every trade, happens to be a minority contractor, so be it, I can accept that. Skip Alston and his posse would be thrilled. However, if it turns out that every low bidder, in every trade, happens not to be a minority contractor, I also can accept that. But, will Skip Alston and his posse? Probably not. Do they intend to step in again and try to strong-arm the process? They appear to have done so recently and got away with it. This makes it appear that in Guilford County, ALL CONTRACTORS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED EQUALLY, HOWEVER, SOME CONTRACTORS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED MORE EQUALLY THAN OTHER CONTRACTORS.
Is this SNAFU an essential service; such as police, fire, waste disposal, etc? Utilities are also essential services, but we pay ever more (just like taxes) for them.
Virtually everything else are goodies for the faithful.
If it were not for the racist agenda and policies pushed by Skip Alston, Guilford County should not and would not even be involved in this decidedly City of Greensboro project.
If only the other Democrat Commissioners on the Guilford Count Board had the temerity to question his choices and decline to follow in lockstep, we’d have a much less costly picture for their spending. Woefully, they are like lemmings.
Bend over dear taxpayers, grab your ankles and your wallets, here they come again! Glad Samet is sticking it to these clowns, but I agree with the rest of you that the project itself is a waste.
It’s funny anything racist Skip Alston wants Guilford County gives him. I guess that’s why this project is in a minority neighborhood not any other, so in a few years this place will be a rat hole.
This project is actually in the city on Lee Street. I’m not sure how the county and skip got so involved