After a delay, the final payments for Union County’s Cromwell and High and Dry roads projects were approved and paid for.
The payments of $4,100 for Cromwell Road and $7,600 for High and Dry Road were delayed after a county employee signed the projects finished and it was thought the payments would be initiated. However, contractors waited for payments and they never arrived.
“We thought that was all we had to do to initiate the final payment. But, apparently, that’s not the case,” said Steve Akes, Union County engineer.
Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) employees audited the projects when they were finished, after which they were signed off by a county employee. Instead, a voucher had to be filled out.
“Since it’s a federally funded project, when we finalized the project, the Iowa DOT had to come and audit it, and make sure all the materials are certified,” Akes said. “So, we did that.”
It’s not unusual for contractors to not get the final payments right away.
“The audit took awhile this time,” Akes said. “Contractors are used to waiting for their last check. Sometimes there are snags they have to wait on. In this case, it all went pretty easy.”
The final contract cost of the Cromwell Road project was $565,921.75, and the cost for High and Dry Road was $664,700.59.
“Those are just nominal numbers. I’m sure it was just a few thousand dollars over that,” Akes said. “The projects have been finished for quite some time.”
Akes said the delay shouldn’t have any effect on the budgeting or payments, just that the money was carried over into the next fiscal year.
In other Union County Supervisor news:
• Board members approved the hiring of two Union County jailers. There will be one full-time jailer to fill an opening, and one part-time jailer to help ease the hours the current part-time position is working.
• Board members and Akes discussed not doing a bridge project on 197th Street. “Rather than do the project, we’re considering doing a different bridge, one that we can start on right away,” Akes said. “One that we can get done before winter, and put that (197th Street) project in a future year.”
• A grading agreement was approved on 265th Street, and a utility permit application was approved.