St. Ignatius Council pays bill
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ST. IGNATIUS – The St. Ignatius Town Council expressed their disgust with the town’s newly finished water project on July 7, as they voted to pay more than $50,000 in a penultimate installment for the work, which has been plagued with issues for several years.
Public Works Director Scott Morton said communication with the firm in charge of the project, Great West Engineering, has completely broken down as the firm says it has completed the project, but Morton and the council members find the finished product unsatisfactory.
“It sounds like they are done working for us, and we are not going to pay them,” Attorney James Lapotka said as he looked over communication sent between the firm and town officials.
Councilmember Annie Morigeau expressed frustration with the project, which was supposed to be completed in 90 days but has lasted more than a year. The delays caused the town government to have to find an additional $50,000 in funding in June 2014, and Morton said he expects when everything is said and done, the final billing will be more than was allotted by the council for the project.
For all the extra cost, Morton and the council say the roadways that cover the town’s new water lines are shoddy, comprised of “a patch on a patch on a patch” that were constructed without proper compaction tests. In their opinion, the project is not finished.
“They say they are done, but they aren’t,” Morigeau said. “If they aren’t done, they don’t get paid. We have proof that they haven’t finished what is on the checklist.”
But Morton said Great West Engineering altered the checklist, and that he is not sure what the council can do about it.
“If we don’t pay, does that give them legal recourse?” Morton said. “Do you pay them and then go after them afterwards? I don’t know.”
Attorney Lapotka said he would look into legal options, as the council voted 3-1 to pay the bill, and 2-2 to accept change orders for the project. Mayor Charley Gariepy cast the deciding vote on the change order, voting to accept the order, though he acknowledged that he did not want to.
Morigeau noted that there did not appear to be a good path for the council to take.
“It’s lose, lose,” Morigeau said.
That leaves that St. Ignatius Town Maintenance department likely holding the bag, Morton said. The problems Morton sees coming down the road could be bigger than having to re-pave streets that were poorly done. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has not received as-built blueprints for the project. The agency agreed to pay for $103,000 of the project’s cost that was projected to be $500,000 in 2010.
“We don’t have any of it,” Morton said. “We are required to have them. You can say that we refuse to pay them, but then when the DEQ wants those as-built (blueprints), then who is at fault? Us. All this stuff was in the contract. We already paid for it.”
Morton said the blueprints the DEQ have requested should have been done a year ago. Some members of the council suggested calling the agency to see if they could help.
“If the funding agencies aren’t getting what they need, let’s get them involved,” Councilmember Ray Frey said.
