Tonight's editorial in the Sun, "Costly delay," criticizes S&R Contracting Corp for causing the delays in the construction of the Stoklosa Middle School. As also reported in the Sun on Saturday, the city of Lowell is withholding the final payment of $600,000 to S&R as a penalty of the delay. The Sun's opinion is that S&R should not be hired for any additional public sector construction jobs. We agree, but there are many questions that remain unanswered. S&R's contract called for all work to be completed by April 23, 2003, ninety days from the start of the contract. Here it is almost ten months after the completion date - a delay three times as long as performance of the entire contract was supposed to take - and the city is only now penalizing this company. Why didn't the city act sooner? That's a question that needs to be answered. Left unsaid by the Sun is the fact that S&R is the same company that's been performing repair work on the O'Donnell Bridge (aka School Street Bridge) which has lasted forever. Presumably the bridge repair job was beyond it's completion date when the city awarded S&R the Stoklosa contract. The Sun's call to not use S&R seems one delayed job too late.