Charles City to seek damages for overdue water main project

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Council discussed how it will address liquidated damages for an exceptionally overdue water main project during its work session meeting on Wednesday, July 12.

As previously discussed at the last workshop, the city has received a final payment request for the 4th/5th Avenue HDD Water Main Project.

The 2020 project, contracted to Summers Enterprise, was slated to be complete no later than April 30, 2021. However, the contractor did not finish the job until May 23, 2023 – 753 days past the contracted deadline.

Per the contract, the city would be entitled to liquidated damages of $200 per day, which would amount to $150,600 that could be reduced from the final pay order of $311,353.

Due to the amount of money involved, the council decided to table the matter at the previous workshop until it could be run by City Attorney Brad Sloter, who was present this week to offer his assessment.

Sloter said that the terms of the contract were clear and that the city would be within its rights to deduct the full amount of liquidated damages. However, it was recommended that the city subtract the 137 days from the overdue total to account for the two winters where the project was left incomplete. This would bring the liquidated damages down to $96,000.

The city will send a letter to Summers Enterprise informing them of the city’s position and give the company time to respond before taking action to close out the project.

In other business, the council reviewed updates to the city’s employee handbook. Most of the changes to the handbook are to keep it inline with federal law, but the council did discuss some additional recommendations for changes that would better serve employee attraction and retention such as adding new paid holidays, more flexible vacation and sick leave policies, and expansion of health and fitness membership compensation.