The North Bend Eagle

 

City not hapy with $10k error

by Nathan Arneal
Published 10/11/17

A clerical error in the bidding process for the North Bend street construction project had mayor Jeff Kluthe and the city council a little hot under the collar at the Oct. 3 council meeting.

Jon Mooberry of JEO Consulting, the firm that acts as North Bend’s city engineer, told the council that part of the project was not reflected on the bid forms sent to contractors. He added that everyone got the same information and that the error would not have affected who won the bid.

Mooberry said the bids were missing some of the sidewalk and driveways on 11th Street.

“It was not on the bid form,” Mooberry said. “It was in the plans, but we did not have basically that second block (of 11th Street) to Locust, those quantities listed on the bid form.”

The work that was not part of the bid has been completed and will increase the city’s costs by $9,974.40.

Kluthe said this isn’t the first time JEO has made an error that they had to apologize for.

“I’m frustrated with JEO,” Kluthe told Mooberry. “This frustrates me. As much as you guys charge us – I couldn’t do it to my customers. I wouldn’t have a job. I know there aren’t very many more people out there that do what you do, but if this keeps going, we have got to start looking.”

Kluthe said the good thing about the situation was that all companies bid on the same information and that the cost of the additional work will be the same as it would have been had it been included in the initial bid.

Kluthe asked for a motion to approve the change order for the $9,974.40 cost increase. It took over two minutes of waiting and additional prodding by Kluthe before councilman Bart Bosco made a motion to approve the change. It passed 3-0, with council member Emily Kirschenmann absent from the meeting.

The council also expressed disappointment in the work done last year on 11th Street in front of North Bend Elementary, which was not engineered by JEO. They said several cracks have shown up and the concrete is wavy enough to hold water after a rain.

City clerk Theresa Busse said she contacted Bob Soukup of Carlson West Povondra Architects, who oversaw the project. Busse reported thatSoukup told her he will talk to his engineers and inspect the street after a rain.

In other council business:

• Discussion on annual raises was tabled until the entire council can be present.

• Justin Taylor asked if the city was considering annexing the Pioneer Lake housing development south of the golf course. He owns a lot on the lake and said he would be in favor of the city exploring annexation.

“We’re not even in the baby stages right now,” Kluthe said. “We’re chatting about it, which really needs to be done because if you’re a small town and you want to keep growing, everybody’s got to be involved.”

Busse said the city engineer is studying the pros and cons of annexation so everyone knows the facts before any moves are made.

“What we will never do,” Kluthe said, “is hold a town hall meeting until we get everything in order as much as we can. Hearsay does nothing. It screws it up more than anything.”

Taylor said he might change his mind once he sees all the pros and cons, but he is interested in seeing what effects annexation would have.

 

<<Back to the front page