MOUND CITY – Linn County Commissioners approved the 19th payment request from River City Construction for about $1.08 million on Monday, April 11. That leaves about $2.1 million in the project fund plus retainage on Monday, April 11; the actual request will come through in next week’s claims.
But after paying this payment, it looked at first like commissioners were not going to pay nearly $36,000 to finish the parking lot.
County Counselor Gary Thompson, who is also the construction representative for the county, told the commissioners about the remediation that needed to be done to the parking lot area to stabilize the area.
Victory, the parking lot company, was going to have to dig out an additional six inches below the subsoil line, then put down a geogrid, a geosynthetic material used to reinforce soils and similar materials, and six inches of rock in addition to the six inches of rock that was in the contract.
The additional cost included $9,000 for the geogrid, $20,000 for the six inches of aggregate rock, and $6,000 for the excavation. Part of the excavation would have to be manually done because of the sewer line, electric line and storm water line underneath the parking lot.
Thompson recommended that they go ahead and pay the cost.
Commission Chair Jim Johnson asked why they did not know about this problem and why it was not figured in the bid.
Thompson said he thought the company’s answer would be if they had known about it from the beginning, the county would have had to pay the same.
Commissioner Rick James said, “We gotta mess. We are going to have to do it. Kick the can to get the parking lot done.”
Commissioner Danny McCullough said he thought it was too high.
Thompson reminded the commissioners that moving of the district court and court hearings, which was supposed to happen in middle to late May had already been postponed to the middle of June because of the parking lot. Any more postponements will make the court move happen in July.
“We need to go forward. I don’t see how we can not,” said James. We can make a big stall in order to maybe save $3,000 or $4,000. He made a motion to approve the payment of nearly $36,000 and the measure was approved unanimously.
In other business, the commissioners:
Gave Public Works Director Shaun West a raise from $27.49 to $28.61 as he had received his waste water certification and was going to take over supervision and reporting on the Centerville lagoon.
Approved three locations requesting reduced dump fees. They are 245 E. Third, Prescott, owned by Tim Howlingcrane; 415 E. Walnut, Prescott owned by David Friedline; and 409 Center Street, Pleasanton, owned by James Schreckhise.
Learned that Evergy had placed some power poles in the county right-of-way. Thompson had talked with them and they were going to re-situate them. West is going to make sure they know where the poles can be placed.
Heard from Thompson that any construction in the county’s right-of-way requires a permit. This is so the county knows where the utility lines are placed and so they are installed where they are supposed to be.
Approved a single burial by Zook Excavating for an oil project in the 700 Botkin Road area.
Approved burial permits for Chad Page. They are for water lines at Quarterman Rd, north of E. 1850; E. 1300 Rd. west of Polly Rd.; 17130 E. 1850 Rd.; and a gas line at 6427 W. 2200 Rd.
Asked West to find out more information about three road graders they are looking at turning in at $115,000 apiece on a seven-year, 7,000-hours buy-back plan. The commissioners asked him to get the age and hours on all road graders and the cost of purchasing a new one.
Heard from West about damage on an old bridge at 1350 Ross Lane.
Heard from West that they would need to replace tarp on the hoop building at the airport.
Learned from West that Bettis Asphalt was coming back to repair several places on the new asphalt at Parker. West said that there were three or four places where the mud flap has fallen off the road. The county has done temporary patching in the meantime.
Discussed whether to give old road signs to cities and lake developments.
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