Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety Friday approved a pay application for the third floor renovation project for the new city hall. OrthoWorx will use the third floor for office space. The board approved a $47,978.10 payment to Harold McComb & Son for the renovations. Jeremy Skinner, city planner, said all of the framing is 90 percent complete, the electrical conduit is 80 percent complete, the mechanical duct work has started and plumbing work has started this week. Skinner said the renovations are scheduled to be completed in mid to late November. The board also approved tabling a change order payment of a remaining $24,000 to general contractor All Star Construction & Excavating Inc. for work on a force main project on the Center Street pump station. EBI Consulting was the company hired by All Star to do the force main project work. The issue is a bill from EBI Drilling Inc. for $31,812.38, a price that engineers Jones & Henry say the city should not have to pay because terms of a contract were not met. The contract was for replacing sewage force mains at the Center Street pump station that began in March 2012 and were completed last year. There was an issue with the city not locating an existing force main, according to Brian Davison, Warsaw wastewater treatment utility manager. Ed Foss with All Star and his attorney, Robert Vegeler, attended Friday’s meeting to discuss the bill. Foss and Vegeler said the original main could not be located by the engineer’s blueprints and EBI employees, along with city employees, who worked for approximately a half day to find the line. Davison said the contractor agreed to deduct $7,000 for city employees who helped to try and locate the main, but said EBI did not provide the city with a 48 hour notice of when they would be on site to begin drilling. The original force main could not be located so the city had to obtain an additional easement to drill for a new line. Davison said had the city been given the 48 hour notice, all of that could have been completed. After discussion, the board approved tabling the change order payment. The board also approved a $107,725.70 payment to Harold McComb & Son for partial retainage work on the new city hall. A $54,196.28 payment was approved to DT Construction for the city hall plaza wall and restroom project. The board approved a $16,153 payment to A & Z Engineering, Fort Wayne, for preliminary engineering work on the Husky Trail road improvement project. This is an 80/20 grant where the city will pay for 20 percent of the project cost including engineering. The city will be reimbursed for 80 percent.
