Wadena County Commissioners: Prevailing wage discrepancy causes $28,000 hike in Nimrod Shop project costs
by Trinity Gruenberg
The Wadena County Commissioners held their regular meeting on Tuesday, August 6.
Nimrod Shop Price Increase
The project manager changed for the Nimrod Shop. They asked for a change order of $42,527 to cover the prevailing wage. County Engineer Darin Fellbaum felt the county wasn’t responsible, as he had communicated that to Hytec at the beginning of the bid. Hytec reworked their numbers and asked for $28,161. The project has already started. A prevailing wage is a requirement for state aid funds. Fellbaum didn’t double-check the signed agreement to see if it included the prevailing wage.
County Attorney Kyra Ladd said it’s problematic that the language for prevailing wage is not in the document. As a project using state aid, it should have automatically triggered the prevailing wage.
The original bid for the project was $350,839. The new cost is $387,000. Fellbaum reiterated that the county shouldn’t be at fault for this, as it was communicated to Hytec initially. They are using $179,416 of state aid funding for the project, $100,000 from the highway fund, and $79,416 from the levy building fund....
Comments