LAKEPORT -The Lakeport City Council approved more than $69,000 of contract changes Tuesday night for the city”s Third Street improvement project.
City Engineer Scott Harter asked the council to approve three changes, including one for $61,129.23 to add five contract days for the city”s redevelopment project to improve the Second Street alley. The council approved the change in a 3-2 vote, with councilmen Jim Irwin and Ron Bertsch in dissent.
“I don”t want you to have to come back to us every time there is a change order, but some of this stuff has got to stop. These (contracts) are not written to protect us,” Bertsch said, addressing Harter.
Harter said the city saved $150,000 on the project”s budget, and said contractors needed provisions in contracts to allow for changes.
A $4,956.50 change was passed 3-2, also with Irwin and Bertsch in dissent, for changes to the light standard foundations because Pacific Gas & Electric underground utilities existed in places not indicated on record drawings, according to Harter.
The change was also needed to provide a 50 ? 100 amp service panel on the north side of City Hall for special events.
A change order to allow a modified drainage system to accommodate underground electrical facilities was approved unanimously. The additional cost to the city for that change was $3,846.59.
In other council business, Irwin brought a discussion to the council about whether Measure I money should be spent on projects listed in the city”s 2008-09 budget.
“My main concern was that there were several projects that are not ones I considered Measure I projects,” Irwin said.
He asked specifically about the 2006 storm damage repair, Safe Routes to School and the Forbes Trail projects.
“The reason those are listed as Measure I projects is that in order to do them we have to front the money, and the only money available was Measure I,” Lakeport Public Works Director Doug Grider said.
Caltrans reimburses the city between 50 and 90 percent of a project”s cost, according to Grider, and he said Measure I money could fund the city”s contribution to the projects. Irwin said he did not have a problem using Measure I money to pay the city”s match for the projects, but said the projects might get under way sooner if the city used its approximately $400,000 general fund reserve to front the money.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
