Council discusses drainage project

    RIVERSIDE ? The Riverside City Council debated whether to approve a $2,000 change order to a drainage project, and ultimately decided to delay the decision to another meeting. The city is trying to provide better drainage on Railroad Street on the south side of town. DeLong Construction sent a change order to the council, asking to install another intake and to raise the existing intakes near the intersection of Railroad and Washington streets to get water off the road more quickly.

    Public Works Supervisor Brad Herrig said the street will drain with its current configuration but that another intake will speed up the process.

    Councilor Kevin Kiene objected to spending another $2,000 on a project that already costs about $130,000. Kiene said it should not be the city?s responsibility to pay for the changes.

    Mayor Brian McDole said $2,000 was not very much money for a change order, and that it was important for the street to drain well.

    Councilor Rodney Waldschmidt said it would be difficult to ask the contractor to absorb the cost when they were given a sight design that the city approved.

    McDole remarked, ?How can you hold a contractor liable for something that has been drawn up and approved??

    Councilor Ralph Schnoebelen said, ?Maybe it was the engineer?s problem. Let the engineer pay it if he didn?t draw it up right. That?s what you hire him for.?

     Waldschmidt said it would be pretty unlikely to see an engineer pay for such a change order.

    The council voted 2-2 to approve the change order. Waldschmidt and councilor Betty Kaalberg voted in favor while Schnoebelen and Kiene voted against it. Councilor Todd Yahnke was absent. McDole said the matter will be discussed further at the next meeting. McDole does not have the power to break a tie vote.

Iowa City Building Inspector Terry Goerdt was invited to the council?s meeting to talk about unsafe buildings in Riverside. He was asked what kind of power the city has to force property owners to repair their homes.

    Waldschmidt said he doesn?t like the idea of a building inspector acting as a contractor, telling a homeowner all the things to fix on his or her own property.

For the full story, see the Nov. 2 edition of The Washington Evening Journal