ThisWeek CW 10/06/2011
City council’s finance committee agreed Monday, Oct. 3, to recommend that the full council approve three-year contract extensions with two engineering firms.
Currently, the city contracts with four different engineering firms for four different required services. Public service director Matt Peoples said this was the result of project problems in the past where engineering firms were completing their own inspection work, leaving the city exposed to risk.
“In 1999, when we had a problem with our Washington Street project, we decided not to have an engineering company doing their own inspections any more, so QCI does our inspection work,” Peoples said. “We have a geo-sourcing engineer to do the very specialized soil and underground analysis work. Bird and Bull has done a good job of getting to know our specific water plants. EMH&T we use for our street work and other general work like that. So each one is specialized.”
Both the C.F. Bird and R.J. Bull Inc. and EMH&T contracts are up for renewal this year. According to finance director Nanisa Osborn, Canal Winchester spent approximately $160,000 with EMH&T and $98,000 with Bird and Bull last year for engineering work.
The firms can be paid for actual time billed, based on a rate card that defines charges according to services provided; the Bird and Bull contract also includes a provision that allows the company to instead be paid a percentage of overall project costs. Those percentages range from a high of 14 percent to a low of 5.6 percent.
Peoples said the way the city uses its engineering contractors provides taxpayers good value for their money.
“Bird and Bull has done a good job of getting to know our specific plants,” he said. “If you remember, we had to fire the original engineer on the wastewater project due to performance issues. The water plant engineer didn’t last through construction, which is how we ended up with Bird and Bull.
“They know how we do our projects,” Peoples added. “We have a specific engineer who knows exactly what we want, which has saved us money because we don’t have to go back and forth. We’ve also been very successful with EMH&T helping us to secure grant money from OPWC (Ohio Public Works Commission) and others through funding applications.”
According to Peoples, he and Bill Sims, Canal Winchester’s construction services administrator, decide which engineer to use for which project.
In regard to setting standards for engineering and construction contractors, the finance committee also recommended a set of standardized contract documents and agreements for use between contractors and the city, for professional services and project specifications.
Osborn also recommended the finance committee forward to city council an ordinance that will require individuals who damage city property to be responsible for the full replacement cost of that property.
“This has been through the safety committee and I wanted you to feel comfortable with it, too,” Osborn said. “We have insurance companies that want to depreciate the value of street lights and signs when their clients run them over. But it doesn’t cost the depreciated value to replace it, it costs the full replacement cost. For example, we had someone take out a (traffic light) controller which was just over $22,000 to replace.”
The next finance committee meeting will be at 6 p.m., Monday, Nov. 7, at Town Hall, 10 N. High St.