GREENFIELD — The nonprofit spearheading creation of Greenfield’s first recovery house is suing a local remodeling company, saying the contractors never completed the work they were paid to do, setting back the construction schedule.
Friends of Recovery — the organization behind the women’s recovery house, Talitha Koum — has filed a lawsuit against Remodeling Service & Complete Restoration, a Greenfield construction company.
Friends of Recovery is asking a judge to order the remodeling company to return $7,000 that was paid to the company last year. The work the remodeling company had agreed to do was never completed, the nonprofit’s leaders say.
That set construction at the facility back temporarily, said Greenfield attorney Dawn Wellman, who sits on the Talitha Koum board and filed the lawsuit on behalf of the organization in Hancock Circuit Court last week.
According to the lawsuit, Friends of Recovery entered into a contract with Remodeling Service & Complete Restoration in September.
The nonprofit agreed to pay nearly $14,000 to have the remodeling company replace all the vinyl siding, repair the roof and paint the doors and windows, along with other tasks, at Talitha Koum, 527 E. Main St.
Talitha Koum’s leaders paid the remodeling company $7,000 and promised to pay the remaining $6,800 once the work was completed, court documents state.
The work was never done, and no invoices were ever received, the lawsuit states. Requests for updates made by Wellman to the company’s owners went unanswered, court documents state.
Lindy Anglin, a representative from Remodeling Service & Complete Restoration, said the money Friends of Recovery paid has already been returned to the organization.
When reached by the Daily Reporter on Thursday morning, Anglin said she wasn’t aware a lawsuit was filed by Friends of Recovery.
She said the company completed some of the work it was contracted to do; but after several hurricanes hit Florida and Texas last year, the company became “too far extended” after taking restoration jobs in the southern part of the country.
So, Remodeling Service & Complete Restoration ended its contract with Friends of Recovery and offered the group a full refund “because of who they are and what they’re doing in the community,” Anglin said.
Wellman said she’s been unable to reach the company, and Friends of Recovery has not received a refund. She’s hopeful a judge will order the money be returned to the organization.
Friends of Recovery still plans to open Talitha Koum before the end of the year, officials said. Once its doors are open, the center will house 10 women battling addiction.
Talitha Koum has received great financial support from the community, with an estimated $170,000 raised in the past three years to make the rehab facility a reality.
County leaders, deciding the county is in desperate need of an affordable recovery house, also have chipped in $150,000 in taxpayer dollars to help complete construction and cover operating costs.