LOCKPORT — A Buffalo man’s plan to build and launch the Pride of the Erie Canal in Lockport is sinking.

Management of the Dale Association, which agreed to loan dormant warehouse space to packet boat builder Michael R. Weeks for six months, recently informed Weekes he must vacate the Lock Street space immediately.

Dale Association Director Linda Van Buskirk’s vacate deadline, today, will come and go with Weekes pondering how to get his 800-pound work-in-progress — it’s the base of the hull — out of the Dale property.

He says he can’t, in one piece anyway, and he hinted earlier this week that until he finds another place to build or at least store the hull, he’s not inclined to go anywhere.

Local support for Weekes’ project, announced with fanfare less than two months ago at the Erie Canal Discovery Center, has evaporated. Weekes’ primary backers — ECDC’s Doug Farley, community event organizer Jay Krull and Van Buskirk — are cutting ties with him after the Dale Association received bills for warehouse improvements and Weekes refused to pay them.

“I wish Mr. Weekes success with his endeavor, but I made the decision to ask him to leave (the Dale warehouse) because the deal has gotten murky. I felt it best not to continue on and incur any more expenses,” Van Buskirk said. “We don’t exist to support boat building; that’s not how we should be spending our money.”

The Dale Association, a not-for-profit senior citizens/human services organization, has been handed bills adding up to $1,500, for electric and heating work inside the warehouse and fuel charges incurred since early December.

According to all parties, Van Buskirk OK’d Weekes’ free, temporary use of the old Sir Billiards pool hall to build a 36-by-12-by-9-foot replica packet boat. The unimproved space was to be the Dale’s contribution to what was billed as a community history and tourism-building project.

In exchange for aiding Weekes as he built the packet boat, it was said at a Nov. 29 press conference announcing the project, the community would have occasional access to the boat, while it was being built and later at canal-linked festivals and special events. At the time, Weekes identified himself as a self-employed business improvement consultant. He said Lockport would be the Pride’s home base, meaning the city’s name would be emblazoned on the back end as he piloted it along the Erie Canal in summer. He also said the boat would be his personal property, since he was funding the $40,000 construction project completely out of his pocket, but he’d gladly “share” it with the community that helped him build it.

Weekes began boat construction at the Dale warehouse around Dec. 10.

Local support for his endeavor starting waning soon after, when the Dale received a $425 bill from one of its electric contractors, for electric work and installation of new lights in the warehouse. Weekes was shown the bill and he refused to pay it.

Weekes told the US&J that he couldn’t afford to, because at the time he was unemployed and “spending thousands of dollars a week on lumber and materials.” Then he said he thought his backers had offered to pick up any heat and electric expenses he incurred at the Dale, by fundraising; that after he, Farley and Krull drafted a budget of $2,500 for utility costs, Krull specifically agreed to obtain sponsorships and donations for that amount.

Krull said that was not their agreement. The men came up with a $2,500 budget estimate to cover miscellaneous costs, mostly expenses tied to marketing of  events involving the boat and non-profit organizations. Along the way, Krull said, they estimated utility spending of about $500 at the Dale warehouse — and came up with a plan to try getting the work done for less that Weekes ignored.

Krull said he proposed asking a city building inspector to look over the warehouse and determine if Krull could do the work — mostly putting up new lights — and still keep the warehouse code-compliant; or in the alternative, obtain a discount from a certified contractor. Before a city inspection could be obtained, Krull said, Weekes went ahead and commissioned the Dale contractor on his own, based on a reference from the Dale facilities manager.

Krull, who had recruited Van Buskirk and the Dale to the project, said he had an uneasy feeling about Weekes after the first bill episode. The Dale received additional bills, for building supplies, HVAC work and locksmith service at the warehouse, the total well exceeding the $500 estimate that Weekes had helped draft, Krull said. Meanwhile, Weekes resisted entering a written agreement with his backers specifying who’d do or be responsible for what; and clearly defining Weekes’ intent to “share” the finished boat with Lockport.

How many days or weeks would Pride be in Lockport this summer? Would people be able to board and/or ride it? Would the boat be historically accurate? Why did the boat size decrease, and the cost estimate increase, as Weekes talked more about his plans? How much boat-building experience did Weekes have, anyway, and why couldn’t he show photographs of the three boats he said he’d built previously? Why didn’t he have a construction budget or documentation he possessed the means to pay for construction?

Weekes wouldn’t answer the questions definitively, orally or in writing, Krull said.

To the questions of public access, Weekes said he agreed verbally to make Pride available for public viewing 45 days this summer, for events, weekends and extended docking near ECDC, and he’d produce “passes” allowing up to 12 “guests” at a time to come aboard free of charge, but would not do formal tours because state regulators get involved in that.

Beyond the 2012 navigating season, Weekes told Farley and Krull that he’d agree to a three-year contract with ECDC and other parties, on the condition the parties find — and fund — storage space for his boat during the off season.

Earlier this month, after Weekes failed to answer Krull’s written questions about his background and intentions, Krull told Farley and Van Buskirk that he was stepping down from the partnership. Farley and Van Buskirk soon followed suit — and Weekes got notice to vacate the Dale warehouse by Jan. 30. Van Buskirk raised the deadline to today — and warned she’d have him locked out of the warehouse if he doesn’t go — after Weekes tried badgering her to reconsider, according to Krull.

“We’ve become very concerned about the direction of this, because we have no guarantees; he could let this community build a boat for him ... then sail the Erie Canal into the sunset and we’d never see him again,” Krull said. “There were a lot of discrepancies in Mr. Weekes’ commitment, in what he was going to provide in return for our support. There were just a lot of strange things and (Weekes) wouldn’t clear them up.”

Weekes said he thinks Krull soured on him for competitive reasons, including his dismissal of Krull’s offer to try doing the Dale electric work himself. He claims he’s a victim of broken promises now.

“I had an offer to build (Pride) in Buffalo, in leased space. The reason I’m here is I thought I had fundraising help,” he said. “I was sold the idea that I’d have a place to build this boat ... now here we are.”

Weekes — who says he landed a new job as an executive with Upstate New York Transplant Services last month — insists he can’t remove the unfinished hull from Dale property in one piece, and cutting into pieces would ruin it. He asserted one of his backers’ unmet “promises” was to install an overhead door before he finished building the boat, so he could tow it out whole.

Van Buskirk said she did not promise Weekes a door. The Dale Association already had plans to install an overhead door this spring, in order to use the warehouse for covered vehicle storage. Meanwhile, Weekes’ construction timeline called for a mid-May boat launch.

“By the time the boat was built, it would have been close to the time the board planned to install the overhead door, so I saw no conflict in timing the door (installation) to that,” she said. “In retrospect, I’m not sure what Mr. Weekes thought the city was going to do with him. I thought we made a short-term deal for borrowed space, because (Weekes’ project) would be good for the community, good for the city. I’m truly sorry to see it’s not working out that way.”