The City Council met in the Omega Room at Noon. Present was Mayor Willey, Council members Lori Gentzkow, Clint Hoggarth. Also present were Heath Schaffer, Ron Paul, Brandon Reber, Tyrell Clark, Gina Haugen and newspaper Hagebock and Vince Watkins and Greg Pedersen joined by conference call. Zoom team participants were Chris McShane and David from Ohnstad Twichell.
Mayor Willey called the meeting to order at 12:06 pm
- Water Tower: Reber introduced Tyrell stating he is the tank expert for Moore Engineering. Reber then recapped the process with the current water tank. The tank was filled on October 19 and leaked. Meyer Contracting was informed that their tank did not meet the criteria. The objective criteria being: the leak needed to be stopped and the lifespan of the tank needed to meet the original expectations. They have proposed several fixes that Moore Engineering has rejected due to not meeting those criteria.
Today, Moore Engineering is here to present to the council the contractors latest proposal to fix the tank. Xypex is a chemical that is added to concrete that when exposed to water, the crystals in it expand to seal the concrete. The fix proposal consists of carving out the concrete on the joints and around the tie holes. They will then apply the Xypex product, fill in those carved out areas with grout and the apply the sealing product over that. It is believed that this will tie that grout into the concrete creating a waterproof seal that will have no maintenance and should have the longevity of concrete. Research done includes reference calls to other projects in which this process has been done.
The other option available to the council at this time is to consider going to the bond company to file a claim against the contractor. Chris from Ohnstad stated that having a potential fix that the city has not accepted would complicate the bond issue. The contractor is responsible for the criteria put forward in the contract, and if there is a potential fix that does that, the bond company may not move forward with the claim. There is also the issue that legally pursuing the contractor means a lawsuit and that can take time and a lot of money to pursue with no guarantee of resolution in favor of the city.
After further discussion and questions, the council has tabled this matter until their regular meeting on Monday night. They have asked that Reber talk with the contractor about putting into place a 5 year warranty on the tank and bring that information back to the meeting on Monday.
Meeting adjourned at 1:06 pm.