St. Ignatius will pay additional $37,000 for water project
Megan Strickland
Craig Pozega hands out packets to councilmembers.
Megan Strickland
David Aune addresses the St. Ignatius Town Council
Megan Strickland
Attorney James Lapotka, left, and Public Works Director Scott Morton listen to David Aune.
Megan Strickland
Roger Lemon, left, and Daren Incashola are sworn in as councilmembers for the St. Ignatius Town Council.
Megan Strickland
Roger Lemon, left, and Daren Incashola are sworn in as councilmembers for the St. Ignatius Town Council.
Megan Strickland
Roger Lemon, left, and Daren Incashola sign documents during the St. Ignatius Town Council meeting.
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ST. IGNATIUS – Representatives of Great West Engineering place the blame for delays and rising costs of a St. Ignatius water improvement project on a lack of communication and cooperation from the Town Council.
At a Jan. 7 meeting the council agreed to find funding sources for more than $37,000 in additional costs for the project, although Public Works Director Scott Morton said he never received most of the communication Great West Engineering Project Manager Craig Pozega claimed was sent to the city.
Pozega said everything was recorded in writing, which Great West Engineering Executive Vice President Dave Aune vouched for.
“One of my jobs in a situation like this is to look at our performance across the board and look at the city’s performance,” Aune said.
Great West Engineering provided a long list of communication with the city.
“It’s not really refutable. It is fact that those things were requested … and the response time is documented. We still haven’t gotten responses on some things, yet.”
After months of no response the engineers made assumptions on certain design elements of the project without city input so it could move forward, Aune said.
“Our intent was to vet this project completely with you and make sure this project had all the elements that you wanted,” Aune said. “To do that we have to have that information from you. We have to have that response from you. Simply put, that didn’t happen … We moved forward anyway because we knew we needed to.”
Councilmember Roger Lemon said he doesn’t believe the city is the only one at fault.
“This is a heck of a list of mistakes that the city made. Where’s the list of mistakes you made?” Lemon asked Aune and Pozega. “I’ve ran two construction companies and very rarely did we have a contract dispute that wasn’t mutual.”
Aune conceded that in most contract disputes both parties are to blame, but this isn’t one of those cases.
“We have some culpability, but proportionally it’s much less,” Aune said. “ … I’ve been in this position before and I’ve objectively looked at many performances, and when I really believe that we did not perform, then we’ll stand up for it, but in this case, I believe we did perform … I don’t like to sit here and say ‘It’s all your fault,’ but at the end of the day I have to say that’s what it came to.”
The project is slated for groundbreaking in March.
Councilmember Ray Frey asked that copies of all future correspondence be sent to his personal mail as the project progresses. Town Attorney James Lapotka asked that the town be given a timeline so it can meet future deadlines. Pozega said a timeline is possible, but subject to change.
Both parties agreed to do their best to communicate more effectively in the future.
In other business:
Municipal Judge Sharon Richardson swore in Daren Incashola and Roger Lemon to the council.
Ray Frey was elected as council president.
The council authorized Chief of Police Jeffrey Ferguson to hire a part-time police officer from a pool of two applicants.
The council approved a request to pay for new lighting in the fire hall, which is currently completely dark.
