City, Contractor at Odds Over Sidewalk Project Costs
- 29 minutes ago
- 1 min read
by Trinity Gruenberg
The Verndale City Council held a special meeting on March 5 where they spoke with representatives from Moore Engineering over Zoom. The main topic was about who should pay for extra costs of about $75,000 on a project—whether it should be the city, the engineering consultant, or the contractor.
Moore Engineering had previously agreed to cover $30,000 of this extra cost. The council thought this would resolve the issue, but then the contractor, Ideal Construction, claimed they were owed an additional $21,000 to $22,000 for additional work they did. This made the council reconsider the situation.
Council members were told by Ideal Construction that there were mistakes in the calculations from the start, which required extra digging and filling to meet project standards. They questioned why Moore Engineering, who had approved the work during construction, was now suggesting that some of it shouldn’t be paid for.
John Pauna from Moore Engineering responded that the company’s job was to ensure the project was built correctly, not to tell the contractor how to do their work. He said Ideal made choices that went beyond the contract, which is why Moore Engineering didn’t recommend paying the additional $22,000...
