City council approves change orders for water relocation project

BONNERS FERRY — Tuesday night’s City Council was short and sweet with the majority of discussion focusing on the U.S. 95 water relocation project.

The Idaho Transportation Department is currently rebuilding the section of U.S. 95 running through Bonners Ferry, adding a continuous center lane, wider shoulders, sidewalks on both sides, new lighting and updated drainage. Stage 1 of reconstruction has been completed with the remainder or the project anticipated to be completed by 2024.

The city of Bonners Ferry is responsible for relocating water facilities including water meters, fire hydrants and mains between milepost 505.0 and milepost 506.3 prior to reconstruction.

City Engineer Mike Klaus brought two change orders for the water relocation project to the council for approval.

The first change order addressed a delay in completion of the project due to availability of parts.

The pandemic has created disruptions in supply chains across the country and a myriad of industries, with manufacturing and construction at the top, as reported by the White House in June, found here: https://tinyurl.com/2bxdnz5r.

Klaus reported that the city is waiting for meter vaults but only anticipated a delay of a couple weeks, moving the final completion date from Oct. 18 to Nov. 1.

The second change order addressed additional costs of $4,908 needed to extend the water main approximately 50 additional feet.

Klaus said the city took over the water main from the South Hill Water and Sewer District around 2007, and that detailed plans for the water and sewer systems were either not available or incomplete. He noted that that is not an unusual situation with older water and sewer systems.

The City Council approved both change orders.

The council also decided to table the topic of rate increases for planning services from Ruen-Yeager & Associates for a second time.

Ruen-Yeager offers services like long-range planning, day-to-day zoning administration, code updates, comprehensive planning, grant writing, zoning and comprehensive plan map updates, and more.

At the Sept. 8 meeting, Mayor Dick Staples expressed concern over the rate increases, with the highest being a 30% increase for senior planner services. The memo from Ruen-Yeager to the city stated that the city has been paying the same rates since 2012, below market rates and that “the adjustment is a result of increasing costs in providing quality responsive contract planning services.”

Staples said that city officials still had not discussed the rate changes and possible negotiations with Ruen-Yeager and he wanted to continue to table the approval of the new contract until such discussions could take place.

The current contract with Ruen-Yeager expires at the end of September.