Marthasville rejects additional $31,000 invoice for water tank

Adam Rollins, Workers Author

The town of Marthasville and an organization constructing a brand new 300,000-gallon water tank are in dispute over $31,000 in prices for further basis work to organize for building of the large construction.

The tank building is a part of town’s mission to put in a brand new nicely system northeast of city, which is able to serve your entire neighborhood with room to develop for quite a lot of years.

The disagreement is over a big quantity of additional digging and concrete pouring that wanted to be carried out for the tank, in accordance with a mission replace throughout the metropolis’s Sept. 21 board of aldermen assembly. Tank building is being carried out by Pittsburg Tank & Tower Group for $575,000.

Mission supervisor David Van Leer with Cochran Engineering mentioned the Pittsburg crew discovered giant sections of free rock in what was alleged to be a stable layer of bedrock for the inspiration of the water tank. Employees wanted to excavate the free areas a number of toes deep, then again fill them with stable concrete.

“The work that was carried out was what wanted to be carried out,” Van Leer mentioned. Nonetheless, he suggested that Pittsburg’s request for a $31,000 adjustment to their invoice is extreme — and that’s after Cochran talked the corporate down from $50,000.

“We’ve gone by and, to the very best of our capability, tried to quantify all the pieces they’ve carried out from a time standpoint and a (materials) amount standpoint. We consider it’s extra on the order of $21,000,” Van Leer mentioned.

Mayor David Lange, after reviewing an itemized invoice from Pittsburg Tank, mentioned he was pissed off to see prices that seemed to be double billed from the unique mission contract. A number of prices have been for mobilizing tools and crew that have been already on web site, and for work that was already going to get carried out whatever the further concrete pouring, Lange mentioned.

“They’re supposed to simply be charging us for the extra materials. … They’re already being paid $575,000!” Lange acknowledged. “I’m not in opposition to paying them for the additional work. … I simply suppose they’re type of profiting from us.”

Van Leer agreed that the tank firm seems to be making an attempt to “nickel and dime” town with “petty” prices. He mentioned the one resolution is to sit down down and negotiate with the corporate, as a result of prices and pricing for this further work weren’t constructed into the unique contract.

“What we’re making an attempt to get to is what was actually further work that they wouldn’t have included of their unique bid,” Van Leer mentioned. “It’s only a matter of getting this to a value that’s truthful.”

He added that Pittsburg Tank can also be requesting town to increase the deadline for the tank building by two weeks. The penalty charges related to that deadline may give town some leverage to barter, Van Leer mentioned.

The query of the additional value hasn’t stopped the work from continuing. Van Leer mentioned the present completion date for the nicely and tank is estimated in late October or early November.