NORTH WEBSTER – Lakeland Regional Sewer District board postponed action Thursday on a change order worth an extra $44,000 until the reason for the expense can be better explained. Casey Erwin, with project engineer DLZ, said the change order involves electrical work for equipment at the wastewater treatment plant that wasn’t in the original plan, and that the contractor for the plant, R.E. Crosby Inc., wants it approved by April 22. Erwin said he only recently received the request and wasn’t able to look at it closely yet, and so couldn’t fully explain the change or the reason for the deadline. “If I don’t understand something, I don’t like authorizing anything – whether it’s a $6 million project or a $6,000 one,” board President Jim Haney remarked. Other board members agreed, and decided to wait for Erwin to study and explain the change order, then to hold a special meeting to approve it by the 22nd if they think it’s necessary. The board approved other change orders presented by Erwin earlier in the meeting, including $12,500 for 100 extra feet of casing pipe to protect the force main as it goes under the channel between Irish and Little Barbee lakes. Erwin said the contractor for that section of the project, Advanced Reconstruction Technology, will actually need more than 100 feet extra but has agreed to eat the cost for the rest. Other change orders will be necessary because of sewer line and grinder pump installation for the approximately 36 property owners who recently chose to opt-in after they were bypassed in original plans. Erwin said the extra cost – which will be borne by those homeowners, and which will depend on how many of them agree to the quoted cost for installation – could range from $4,000 to $10,000 for section C, $20,000 to $40,000 for section A and about $77,000 for section B. Erwin also said the contractors may need to execute the change orders before the next meeting, so the board voted to authorize Haney to approve the change orders provided the property owners deposit the necessary money in full. Board members also agreed Thursday to have district billing agency Jones Petrie Rafinski proceed with liens on as many as 46 properties whose owners have never paid their bills. They voted to proceed after hearing that the property owners were sent both 120-day overdue notices and pre-lien notices in recent months. Another 74 property owners agreed to pay their overdue bills after receiving the notices, the board heard. And the board approved the following change orders for work done in March: Section A, $195,143; section B, $882,141; section C, $308,467; treatment plant, $181,031; and DLZ, $66,807 plus about $7,000 for services related to the new opt-in connections, which is covered by the $328 deposited upfront by each property owner.
