On Thursday morning, March 31, the Oberlin Council met for the last time under the leadership of Mayor Joseph “Moochie” Manuel in a special meeting designed to attempt to keep the town out of the courtroom in regards to the completion of a water upgrade project funded with USDA dollars. (The town had been served a citation to appear in court in Trek Inc. vs. Town of Oberlin on Thursday, at 1 p.m. Recusals had prevented the hearing from being held, so the two groups met in a council meeting to try to solve the issues.)
The contractor, Troy Quirk with Trek of Bunkie, needs a substantial completion declaration (or certificate of substantial completion) from the town to begin the final steps of completing the project phase, closing out the loan and getting paid for his work. He cannot receive the money without the town’s approval of two proposals. If the town council approved the two proposals, the contractor would be able to receive payment from USDA for his work to rebuild the town’s water distribution system.
Glenn A. Turner, PE, president and CEO of Meyer, Meyer, LaCroix and Hixson Inc. of Alexandria, asked the council to approve adopting Change Order #7 and Re-budget Request #11 so USDA would release the funds. In a letter to the mayor, Turner asked the town to hold a meeting to accept the changes made to complete the project. In the letter, Turner wrote, “I sent the details of this proposed change to the town clerk by e-mail on September 8, 2021, October 12, 2021, and November 10, 2021.” He said he also spoke to the town by telephone on November 9, and December 2, 2021 as well as Luke Miller, PE, attending a town meeting to ask for the changes.
By adopting these changes, USDA would release funds owed to the contractor for the completed project. Turner wrote, “Please understand that this situation cannot continue unresolved. The contractor has performed quite a bit of work for which he had been waiting to get paid for months, but the funding agency will not approve another pay request without a change order to adjust quantities to more closely match those actually installed.”
Recently, Turner, the mayor and the town’s attorney and Trek and his attorney met to discuss ways to solve issues associated with the water project. Oberlin’s leaders have several issues with the project from running out of monies earmarked to pay for the project to not being able to locate all of the digital water meters installed by the contractor.
Over the course of the project, the town was assigned one engineer and then assigned another from Meyer, Meyer when issues began arising in regards to the project. On Thursday, Turner proposed the change order asking that two railroad bores be taken out of the original project. The two bores were going to allow water lines to be installed under the tracks. The other change would be old water lines would not be abandoned and capped off. He said the town could begin capping off those lines as they became aware of issues over time or secure more funding to do that part of the project.
Both the mayor and Councilman Romelzy Willis Jr. wanted to know if those uncapped lines would cause issues for the town if the lines failed. Locating all those lines would be another issue that would cost more and the project is out of money. The mayor asked if the town would receive a map or plans of where new lines were installed, and Turner promised once the final inspection was made, the town would receive the contractor’s notes, etc. on the project.
Turner said after going through the project in September, it was agreed the town would be responsible for roughly $27,000 more after the USDA funds were spent. He said the actual cost to the town would be approximately $17,000.
Councilman Wayne Smith said he realized Trek needed their money. He inquired if the contractor would be penalized for the extra time he used to complete the project. Turner said no and a lot of the time consisted of waiting on the town.
Smith explained he considered the project not finished, and “That’s a big issue.” Willis said $700 a day in fines added up.
Manuel asked if the town would owe any more money past the $17,000 if he signed the papers. Turner explained the town would owe the $17,000 after the funds were spent on the contractor.
“I really think this can get ugly if you try to get that from the contractor,” Turner said in regards to Smith and Willis’ comments.
Quirk explained they needed addresses and other information and they never got the information they needed to complete the project.
Charlotte Artis, city clerk, said the town did receive addresses including latitude and longitude coordinates for installed meters from Quirk, but workers had not discovered 102 of those meters. She asked what happened to those meters. (The contractor’s notes indicate 1,042 meters were purchased for the project, but the town’s water program only counts 940 meters leaving 102 meters unaccounted. At a cost of $323.65 per meter, the town has not been able to locate equipment, valued at approximately $33,009.24.) This has been an issue for over a year now where the town has worked to identify the location of all these new water meters.
Quirk said they installed the meters. Turner said as the engineer, he wanted to verify he was telling the town’s leaders that they had received what they paid for. Turner asked Artis if the town could supply him with a list so they could verify all meters installed. If adjustments had to be made, they could be done when the project was deemed completed. He said there were two more pay requests to complete the project and close it.
Willis asked the town attorney via phone (David Vidrine) if approving the change order would cause the city to lose its rights in regards to any issues involving third-party wrong-doing. Vidrine said they could add a contingency into the motion stating all issues were resolved before final payment.
Turner said if any items are not in accordance with the project, there is a punchlist to be approved before the project is finally deemed completed. “I want to resolve any questions on meters before that punchlist is discussed.”
Smith said in the back of his mind there were mistakes made by both sides in dealing with issues. However, he made the motion to accept the change order and re-budget request. Councilman Chris Davis provided the second and it passed unanimously. (Bobby Thomas and Linda Boulden could not be present for the special meeting.)
