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City will deny
quarter-million-dollar claim
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[AUG. 27, 2003]
City Attorney Bill Bates
said he has gone over the claim submitted by the company performing
the upgrade to waste water treatment facility, Felmley-Dickerson.
Bates went over the claim with the aid of the managing construction
company, Paric, and the city wastewater treatment managers from
Environmental Management Company. Felmley-Dickerson submitted the
lengthy itemized statement for unanticipated expenses totaling
$224,000 earlier this month.
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Going over the list of expenses line by
line, Bates said, the Felmley claim contradicts details, and he
denies the items in their entirety. At the crux of the matter, the
company claims unforeseen conditions. They failed to anticipate
complications created by water at structure 145.
However, Bates said, results of soil
boring tests done two years earlier indicated the need to do more
testing. The tests were labeled as preliminary and not to be relied
on. Felmley provided their own soil engineers, and they had that
information.
Bates said that one of the major points
of the claim said the sheet shoring failed due to water coming in.
However, daily logs show differently, EMC confirmed. The shoring was
failing before water began coming in, Bates said.
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this article]
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After going over the claim thoroughly,
Bates said, "I now know more about de-mucking and de-watering and
that kind of thing than I ever wanted to know." He said he has
drafted a letter that denies each item of the claim. "My secretary
says that it is the longest letter I have drafted in 23 years."
The council
voted unanimously (Alderman Verl Prather and Mayor Beth Davis were
absent) that Bates send the letter.
[Jan
Youngquist]
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