City balks at paying full price for poor work

MARENGO — The Marengo City Council tabled approval of a $46,800 payment to Gee Asphalt Systems last month for work done on South Street and Court Avenue last summer.

“For RAGBRAI, we tried a new process to try to address some of the cracks [in the street],” said Marengo City Administrator Karla Marck.

Gee Asphalt, of Cedar Rapids, charged the city $1,430 for pothole patching, $10,980 for crack sealant, $3,850 for wide-gap crack sealant, $28,830 for GSB friction seal and #1,733 for mobilization and prep, according to an invoice dated July 18.

Councilman Travis Schlabach said the company did a poor job and that Public Works Director Lonnie Altenhofen complained to the company, but the problem was not resolved.

“They did substandard work,” said Schlabach. “We had to do our own cold patching.”

Marck said she’s asked that someone from the company come to a council meeting to tell council members why the city should pay them the full amount, but the company has said it did the work and should be paid for it.

“We owe them something,” said Schlabach, but not full amount. They know they did substandard work, he said.

“If they would come and say, ‘give me $25,000,’ I’d be happy. I’d pay it,” Schlabach said. But the city shouldn’t pay the full amount, he said.

“To me, it was epic failure.”