Spring Avenue project woes continue

With the contractor Lewis and Lewis a month behind the scheduled completion date the Saratoga Town Council and the Saratoga-Carbon County Impact Joint Powers Board (SCCIJPB) met on November 30 to discuss the contractor's request for a winter shutdown.The first question asked by Josh Ward, the project superintendent, is how the town will handle the shutdown. Ward asked if the town is going to assess liquidated damages. Liquidated damages are penalties the town can charge the contractor for breach of contract. The project was supposed to be completed by October 31. The town has given notice to the contractor they intend to begin collecting liquidated damages. The contract staates, liquidated damages in the amount of $1,000 a day began on October 15, when most of the work was supposed to be finished. An extra $750 per day was added by the town when the work wasn't completed on October 31.

Liquidated damages (LDs) were written into the contract when it was initially signed. Ward said Lewis and Lewis still has about four weeks of work to wrap up. The contract states that LDs will not stop because of "weather, temperatures, or other environmental conditions." The town could hold Lewis and Lewis to the terms and charge LDs for the time that they are off the job.

Ward went on to describe the plan for Spring Avenue. He said Lewis and Lewis do a base sub-grade, with material which will act as a base grade and offer a temporary asphalt surface of around two inches. He said, "It will be a good road to drive on and it would wick away the water, to make it plowable. This would be done from Second Street through to South River.

Ward said they would go full width, thirty feet top of asphalt to give enough room for parking. Ward said they would leave proper equipment they would need if there was any incident.

The question was asked, what if the town doesn't grant a winter shutdown? Ward said it would be hard for them to do any work, and the product the town would receive wouldn't be as good. He said getting South River tied in is a pretty big ordeal and the time just isn't there with winter here.

Mayor Elect Chuck Davis asked Ward how much time he thought they would need to complete the project when they come back in the spring. Ward said he'd like to get the job done as quickly as possible and would be looking at March or April depending on the frost and runoff. He said once the frost is down to a foot they should be able to resume work.

Another concern brought up by council members was if there is a water line break, like the one that happened a week prior to the meeting? Caleb Tygum of Lewis and Lewis said they would come and assist in repairs and would pay for it as well.

Discussion ensued about suspending the charging of liquidated damages while on winter shutdown. Councilman Jon Nelson and others voiced their concerns about this suspension. Nelson said the whole point of having a contract is so when one side or the other does something that's not living up to their end of the bargain, there's a process for how it's handled. The way this gets handled is by assessing LDs. Nelson said it's unlikely there could be enough justifiable costs the town could ever substantiate to actually assess the full amount that would be accrued over the course of the winter. He said until this project was done, until we know when the contractor would come back and finish up, the last stick of pipe was in the ground and the last ton of asphalt is on the street, we don't know what this is going to end up costing anybody.

Nelson said, "I think we follow the contract. We've put you guys on notice that we are going to assess LDs. That's how it's going to roll through the winter. If we get to the end of the project and everything's complete and the total tab of LDs is $300,000 but there's only $100,000 of justifiable substantial costs then I feel like we will be reasonable and amicable at that point in time. I think it's too early to take anything off the table."

Councilwoman D'Ron Campbell asked that anyone in the audience that has never screwed up personally or professionally, raise their hand. She said that if you assess LDs for that amount, she feels it is a disservice to the people.

"Do we want people to do business with Saratoga again?" asked Campbell.

Nelson rebutted, saying "when you create an environment where you don't follow a contract, contractors don't want to play ball in that arena."

Tygum told the council if they're going to be assessed damages through the winter shutdown, they might as well just button it up to where it is and make it passable. Tygum said there was no point in temporary pavement if they're going to have to pay for it and temporary pavement and then be assessed liquidated damages during winter shutdown and come back in the spring and redo it all again. If that's the case, he said, they'll just get it to the point where they can set somebody up to maintain it throughout winter and it'll be a dirt road until they come back.

Mayor Creed James said that the Council actually had two choices. The town could do nothing, change nothing with the contract, and have a dirt road all winter. When Lewis and Lewis comes back, the town will assess and show them the actual damages or the town could to do a change order which will memorialize the change to the contract.

The council meeting ended with the Saratoga Town Council asking Lewis and Lewis to bring two proposals to the next council meeting on December 6. Plan A would explain how Lewis and Lewis will continue the job if LDs are waived and the other will inform the town what they intend to do if LDs are assessed.

The next Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 pm on December 6, 2022.