Supervisors Question Change Order On Roof Repair

The Mahaska County Courthouse roof repair change orders make Supervisors question contractors.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors called a special meeting on Friday afternoon to tackle the ongoing roof repair issue for the Mahaska County Courthouse.

Four change orders were presented to the supervisors for their consideration.

A change order from Renaissance Roofing in the amount of $28,500.00 to replace and/or refasten up to 100 loose, missing or broken roof tiles utilizing owner furnished tiles.

At the first February meeting of this year, the Mahaska County Supervisors voted unanimously to approve a bid from Renaissance Roofing in the amount of $67,805. The final amount included two alternatives for hurricane clips and snow guards on the roof. Supervisor Mike Vander Molen noted that Iowa Code required the Supervisors to take the lowest responsible bidder of the three bids received. “I consider Renaissance to be the responsible bidder,” Vander Molen said. The vote to approve the bid passed 3-0.

But facing a potential $28,500.00 change order, Vander Molen said he wasn’t going to approve a change order on something that had already been bid on by the contractor. “How is this not within the original contract scope to fix broken tiles?” asked Vander Molen. “It included this face and all broken tiles on the entire roof. I thought that’s what we were doing.”

Darrell Smith from Terracon, who assisted the Supervisors in setting the scope of repairs, said in response to Vander Molen, “Well, on that other side we couldn’t see all these tiles, I just had a smaller area highlighted on the roof plan.”

“Well we knew there were broken one’s there,” responded Vander Molen.

Supervisor Willie Van Weelden said that standing in the east alley shows that there were tiles that needed worked on.

“That’s what the contract’s for, to fix the whole roof,” said Vander Molen.

Out of 4 change orders brought to the Supervisors, this one never made it to a vote.

One change order was to order 500 additional tiles for the roof, at a cost of $5.00 each, for a total of $2,500.00.

The last change order approved was to add ice and water shield to have proper drying in all copper flashings and to install 30 pound felt, in lieu of sythetic underlayment, for the area where all tiles are being removed to install storm clips.

Another special meeting could potentially be called this next week to further discuss the ongoing repair.