The Questions Remains: Who is Responsible to Pay?
- Trinity Gruenberg
- 30 minutes ago
- 2 min read
by Trinity Gruenberg
The Verndale City Council held their regular meeting on Monday, January 12.
Safe Routes to School Payment
Darrin Fellbaum, with Moore Engineering, presented pay application five for the Safe Routes to School project, which included $11,485.50 for the final speed feedback sign.
A dispute arose between Moore Engineering and Ideal Construction (Jeff Kobliska) over final payment amounts: while Moore recommended specific payments based on their assessments, Ideal Construction requested additional compensation ($17,568.40 more) for unplanned common excavation and class five gravel work that was deemed necessary during the project.
Moore plans to pay for 25 cubic yards.
Kobliska explained that the extra work, especially additional gravel for sidewalk elevations, was directed by Moore’s onsite staff to meet code and drainage requirements. However, these changes were not reflected in the original or updated project budget, nor were they accompanied by formal change orders.
Kobliska explained that he ended up removing nearly twice the amount originally estimated. Because the project was a line-item bid, he believes he should be paid for the actual number of yards removed. The council said once the work reached the estimated 900 yards, he should have stopped the project and checked in with the council on how they wanted to proceed and the sidewalk construction would have been stopped at that point.
Kobliska informed More Engineering in the beginning that more class five gravel would be needed for the project, and Moore Engineering changed the paperwork to reflect that, and it appears they didn’t readjust the budget for that extra expenditure.
The council didn’t understand why they are being held liable to pay it, and withholding payment from Ideal Construction, when they followed what Moore Engineering instructed them to do.
There were no change orders because it was a unit price, which is why it was never brought to the council to get approval to make changes.
The council agreed to approve immediate payment for the speed sign ($11,485.50).
The council asserted that if Moore Engineering’s staff ordered the extra work, the Ideal Construction should be paid for it, even above the initial $30,000...
