KANNAPOLIS — The drama that began when a building contractor vanished after completing about half the city’s new public works center continues with the builder’s insurance company going broke.

A judge has declared Amwest Surety Insurance of Nebraska insolvent and ordered its assets liquidated, City Manager David Hales said Monday. The insurance company owes Kannapolis $220,000.

“That is a potential amount of money that could very well be in jeopardy,” Hales said.

The city incurred the expenses after Hepler Building Co. of Statesville abruptly abandoned construction of the public works operations center on Bethpage Road in April 2000.

Owner Tim W. Hepler’s company left the site with little more than half the work finished. The contractor left similarly abandoned sites in Charlotte, Shelby and Matthews.

Liles Construction of Concord signed a $3.27 million contract last August to complete the public works center. The company has largely finished its work, and the city plans a dedication in July.

The city had $1.85 million left that it didn’t pay to Hepler on that company’s $3.66 million contract. Amwest paid $1.54 million on the new contract and paid the city $120,000 for legal and administrative expenses.

Hales figures the total cost of those expenses is closer to $340,000. The city is working with the Nebraska insurance commissioner’s office to file its claim against the company.

But the city will have to line up and stake its claim with many others, Hales said. A Nebraska judge determined that Amwest’s claims exceeded its revenue and the company was “pretty much broke,” Hales said.

Councilman Robert Misenheimer said he hopes the city can better investigate the companies with which it does business in the future.

“It seems to me that if they’re going to insure the contractor, then we need to be reasonably sure that the insurance company has assets to protect the city of Kannapolis,” he said.

Hales said Amwest’s N.C. license and insurance rating checked out, and there’s not much else the city can check. Amwest does not insure any other ongoing city projects, he said.

Contact Scott Jenkins at 704-797-4248 or sjenkins@salisburypost.com .