Ground was broken for the 75-room Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites in November 2007 but the facility has not yet opened its doors.

SLIPPERY ROCK — The opening of the hotel in the borough continues to hit road blocks.

Anthony Vittiglio, a lawyer representing the hotel, said at Tuesday’s borough council meeting that council should not hold the hotel’s certificate of occupancy “hostage.”

Jeff Schmitz, the owner of the Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites, last week asked borough council for a temporary occupancy permit to allow the hotel to open before the activation of the traffic light at the intersection of Franklin Street and Grove City Road. Council did not grant it.

Vittiglio said the hotel is caught in the middle of a number of disputes that it should not be involved in.

Vittiglio claimed the developer of the property has been unable to fulfill all of its obligations.

He said the borough has been looking to the hotel to expand on the remaining property, which it does not own. Additionally, the hotel already has done work on the property that was not its responsibility.

“The developer that owns that land hasn’t done anything,” Vittiglio said.

He said the hotel will start losing money soon if this is not resolved, noting that Slippery Rock University’s homecoming is happening next month and the hotel already missed SRU’s move in weekend for the start of the fall semester.

Vittiglio said there is a performance bond on the property that is “absolutely guaranteed,” and the borough has a right to make a claim on that bond.

“You have a bond, you should make a claim on that bond,” Vittiglio said. “It’s incomprehensible that that has not been done.”

After this statement, council President Dave Miller told Vittiglio that his allotted three minutes were up. Miller also said that Vittiglio attempted to contact the borough engineer last week, which he should not have done.

“That’s a big no no,” Miller said.

Schmitz told council that it was making a mistake by not giving the hotel its certificate of occupancy.

“You’re costing your borough, I can tell you that,” Schmitz said.

Schmitz said last week that he wants to have the hotel open by Friday. He said having the hotel vacant costs him $980 per day, in addition to $5,000 per day in labor.

The 75-room Marriott Fairfield Inn and Suites broke ground in November 2007, but it was not given a building permit until 2010, with a potential opening date of February.

At a council meeting in August, Schmitz said he had hoped for a Sept. 7 opening.