The Knox Board of Works has approved the final payout for the Wastewater Treatment Plant project, even though some issues remain. After months of negotiations with Thieneman Construction, the board approved a final change order during a special meeting last week. It accepts Thieneman’s offer of two consecutive five-year maintenance bonds, since a concrete pouring mishap last year could make the basement wall more prone to leaks.
But now, the wall has begun leaking in a couple other places, according to engineer Steve Henschen with Jones Petrie Rafinski. “So what’s happening: they’re repairing the leaks that occur, and what that’s doing is just pushing some stuff down to the next potential weak point, I think, is what’s happening,” he told the board.
Mayor Dennis Estok said he wasn’t aware of that issue and began to rethink the city’s final payment. “You know, we’re just in a catch-22 here,” he said, “because if they agree not to do that, once we release this, we have no bargaining power.”
Meanwhile, Henschen said there are still issues with false alarms from the gas monitoring system. “We’re still working through that,” he explained. “They’ve been cooperative. They actually were here about three weeks ago, recalibrated it, and now we’re getting alarms again.”
Not only are the false alarms a nuisance, according to Wastewater Superintendent Jason Clemons, but they also cost the city money when employees have to be paid overtime to respond. He said it got so bad that he directed his crews to turn the monitor off and use their handheld units, instead.
However, Henschen noted that all of these items are still under warranty, and city officials generally felt that Thieneman would be more likely to continue working on them if the city made its payment. In the end, the board of works conditionally agreed to release the remaining $64,500 to Thieneman. After the change orders, the final contract amount came to $1,720,270.29.
