Libby City Council expected to OK dam payment to engineering firm

Libby City Council members, at their next meeting on Sept. 3, are expected to approve one of two outstanding payments to the engineering firm that is handling virtually all phases of the application process for the construction of the $8.4 million Flower Creek Dam.

Up until Thursday, the council did not make payments to Morrison-Maierle, Inc., that were due in May and July. The council agreed to use reserve economic development money to pay the $152,000 May bill.

During the 70-minute meeting Thursday, Libby City Council members and officials from the firm discussed a process for payment. To date, the city owes the firm $464,480. 

Those council members in attendance were Mayor Doug Roll, Council President Bill Bischoff, Council members Robin Benson, Peggy Williams, Barb Desch, Vicky Lawrence and City Clerk Glena Hook. Representing Morrison-Maierele were firm owner Bob Morrison and engineers Ryan Jones and Paul Burnham.

The city has incurred expenses for the dam as engineers and its staff prepared documents for an application to Rural Development, which is the funding arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Because of a permitting snafu that necessitated a biological assessment, where it was believed one previously was not needed, the city missed out on a low-interest loan it anticipated receiving for work being done on the dam by the engineering firm.

Councilwoman Lawrence took the engineering firm to task for not alerting the city sooner than May about the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s rescinding of its earlier notification.

“Why were we not told?” Lawrence asked Jones, the lead engineer on the project.

Lawrence contends the city should have been advised when  Burnham learned in February the USFWS rescinded its earlier decision and now was requiring a biological assessment. The delay effectively stalled the loan application process past the funding deadline. 

Lawrence said the city now faces an unexpected financial burden to meet the engineering firm’s payment schedule now that the loan has been delayed.

“We had no way of knowing the funding was in jeopardy,” Jones said responding to Lawrence’s comment.

Roll said he has been in contact with USFWS officials, and “they are being cooperative.”

“What options do we have?” Roll said. “If we sue, this may even further delay construction. I believe they are working” to move the project along.

Jones said he has recalculated a timetable that still could see the dam finished in 2014.

“We’re only six months behind on this,” Jones said. “It is contingent on the weather, but we could still finish the project in 2014.”

Jones said with cooperation from the weather, crews could perform tasks it had hoped would be completed this fall by early next spring. City Council members indicated a preference for an approval of payment of the May bill at their next meeting Sept. 3. That payment would total $152,000, which still leaves the July unpaid balance of about $312,000.

To date, the city has spent about $1.2 million on the dam.

Morrison said he understands the city’s predicament, and would work with the city to make payments for the unpaid July bill.