Centerville Tidbits
Decision Delayed On Project Monitoring Request
Centerville City Council members have delayed their decision on a request by the city engineer for a more than 50 percent increase to his bill to oversee work on CSAH 14.
Engineer Mark Statz explained at the city’s September 24 meeting that his company’s initial cost estimate of $55,428 to oversee Anoka County’s work on CSAH 14 through Centerville had fallen short by some way as the 20 weeks of work budgeted in 2007 and 2008 was insufficient to see the project through to completion.
“The reality of the situation is that that time has proved to be significantly less than what we really needed so we are asking at this point to increase our bill on this project by $35,000 to continue our efforts through to the end of the project,” said Statz.
“We also thought at the time [of the initial bill] that Paul [Palzer, city public works director] and his staff would be able to spend a lot of time on the job; however, due to the resignation earlier this year and also there has been a hail storm … we have had to fill in the gaps there where we had planned to count on city staff to fill in and keep the costs down.”
City council members expressed disappointment that they had only received news of the request the night of the meeting.
“That’s a huge increase in the budget; that’s nearly 100 percent of the initial estimate,” said Council Member Tom Lee.
Statz added that engineering staff had been spending on average 20 hours a week observing and reviewing the work of the Anoka County contractor on CSAH 14.
“Our staff was so short this summer it wasn’t able to do it,” added City Administrator Dallas Larson.
“There were things that went wrong right away and we did need to have eyes and ears on the project, so there was some justification for having the time on the project.”
City council members tabled the decision until their next meeting.
In other action, the council:
• Gave its seal of approval to a maintenance proposal by the company Corrpro for the city’s water tower, at a basic cost of $520 per year.
• Agreed to a request for an extension to a setback variance on the property at Lot 6, Clearwater Creek Estates, from Sept. 14 to Dec.31 this year.
• Postponed a decision on whether to use funds amounting to approximately $9,000 as a onetime credit to residents for participating in the city recycling program. The money would come from reimbursement funds from Anoka County.
• Passed a resolution amending the date of the city’s Truth in Taxation hearing from Dec. 10 to Dec. 2.
• Authorized the city engineer to perform preliminary work on a project addressing drainage issues in a number of back yards and ponds across Centerville, with the condition that costs are not to exceed $15,000.
• Agreed the city engineer could start work to prepare the city’s trail project by carrying out preliminary surveys and preparing an environmental document required by the federal grant which will pay for a large portion of the project.
• Heard that Anoka County had received the request by young Centerville resident Claudia Comstock, age seven, to improve the safety of a pedestrian crossing on Centerville Road, and was planning to install an additional sign. Allowance money which Claudia had mailed with her request will be returned as the county had sufficient funds for the sign, Mayor Mary Capra reported.
• Approved a motion to advertise for bids in the city’s 2009 street improvement project, with a deadline of Oct. 29.