Iola commissioners rejected Tuesday a revised change order that would have cost the city an additional $19,530 to complete the Iola Public Library roof, part of the library’s ongoing renovations.
At issue is a series of mishaps and disagreements regarding the library’s roof, which was replaced by crews from Allied Roofing Systems of Springfield, Mo., in June.
Allied officials told the city in July that the existing roof was much thicker than previously anticipated, increasing the cost of removal.
Problem was, they went ahead and removed the roof without contacting the city or its architect first.
Allied subsequently sent the change order, asking the city for an additional $29,000 to pay for the added labor and costs.
At a meeting Aug. 10, commissioners directed Allied to negotiate with Hans Fischer of Lawrence, the city’s architect in charge of designing the renovations, as well as officials from General Services Corp. of Oswego, the project’s general contractor.
The change order presented Tuesday cut that cost to $19,530, by reducing $3,000 from Allied’s fee, another $8,500 from a previously approved credit the city received because of cheaper roofing materials and by slightly reducing what General Service Corp. will charge in administrative fees for the change order.
“I wasn’t impressed” with the new change order, Mayor Bill Maness responded.
His harshest words were for General Service officials, who were responsible for overseeing the project but do not have an on-site project supervisor — “A total failure on their part,” the mayor said.
“We waited in good faith for two weeks to hear them out” about their negotiated price, Maness said. “And they came back and slapped us in the face. It’s unacceptable and unreasonable.”
Commissioner Bill Shirley agreed, voting 2-0 vote to reject the change order. Commissioner Craig Abbott was absent.
Commissioners did approve a separate change order, costing the city $2,601.60, to replace a pair of roof drains that had been clogged with tar, asphalt and other debris from previous roof work.
Clogged roof drains were cited by Allied crews as the cause of flooding inside the library that occurred during downpours while the roof work was ongoing.
Rainwater flooded the main reading room and office areas, warping wood trim, damaging light fixtures and saturating newly placed carpet, another sticking point for the city.
Work slowed to a crawl while the firms negotiated the change orders, Fischer told commissioners.
Iola is still awaiting word from an insurance adjuster on how much it will receive for the water damage.
Fischer said crews may eventually apply for an extension to complete the project, which is scheduled to be done by March.
City rejects library change order
