Change orders raise questions about Flower Creek dam

Libby Mayor Doug Roll executed a change order to the contract between the City of Libby and Johnson-Wilson Constructors Inc. for the construction of Libby’s Flower Creek Dam. The change order increases the total cost of the project by more than $400,000, bringing the total cost of the dam to $7,804,974.03 and extended the completion deadline by 38 calendar days, from Nov. 1, 2015, to Dec. 9, 2015.

According to the document, the change order was necessitated by lower than anticipated rock levels on the site, requiring the contractor to move a mass concrete and earthfill interface from its original location. The cost of the new interface, $1,073,123.78, was offset by the cost of the previously-planned interface, $669,511, making a net change of $403,612.78.

“Rock elevations at the site, including rock elevations in the right abutment, were estimated during the design phase on subsurface drilling,” the change order read. “Additional subsurface excavation during construction revealed the rock elevations lower than anticipated from drill logs. The current dam design includes a mass concrete and earthfill interface at Station 3+00. To address the lower rock elevation, the revised design will shift this interface to approximately Station 2+18. This will decrease some of the bid quantities, and will increase additional items, including rock fill, compacted screen soil, filler materials and a concrete core wall.”

Dan Johnson, the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development Agency loan specialist handling the project said contingencies are built into the grant and loan packages that fund projects to cover situations such as this, and that the money would come from those contingency funds.

“At this point, there won’t be any change to the loan package,” he said.

Outgoing Libby City Councilman Gary Neff said he was happy to see the change wouldn’t impact the city’s rate-payers, but was concerned that none of this information had been brought to the City Council by Mayor Roll or City Administrator Jim Hammons. The change order was signed by Roll Sept. 10, 2015, although no problems were documented in previous City Adminstrator reports, nor were any changes brought to the attention of the City Council.

“A change order is an amendment to the contract,” Neff said. “Any contract, or amendment to the contract, must be approved by council before it can be enacted. The mayor never sought, nor received, approval for this amendment, therefore it is invalid.”

Hammons said he believed the council had previously enacted a resolution empowering the mayor and the city administrator to execute change orders, but was unable to provide a copy of the resolution. City Council meeting minutes from the time of the dam contract award, Nov. 5, 2014, make no mention of any such resolution or authority.