Bidding delayed six months

SEELEY LAKE – Representatives from Great West Engineering (GW) gave the Seeley Lake Sewer District Board a new timeline for having the project ready to bid at their Jan. 17 board meeting. The new schedule pushes the ready-to-bid date from early this winter to late summer.

At the meeting, GW blamed the delay in their work on former District Manager Greg Robertson and Director Beth Hutchinson however, there are also several tasks required of the District that have not been completed. Some of the tasks the District must complete before going to bid include obtaining 148 Sewer User Agreements and securing a handful of rights-of-ways required for the collection system and force main.

Craig Pozega and Amy Deitchler of GW explained to the board that GW has been unable to work on the 90 percent design of Seeley’s sewer treatment plant and Phase 1 of the collection system due to the board not signing a new Engineering Services Agreement. The board approved the 60 percent design in September.

Deitchler said GW has been trying to get the board to sign the Agreement since March of 2018 when GW gave the Agreement to Robertson and then tried again in September of 2018 when Deitchler gave it to Hutchinson.

Neither Robertson nor Hutchinson were in attendance at the board meeting so the Pathfinder contacted them for comment.

Robertson, who no longer works for the District due to leaving his job with Missoula County, denied seeing the Agreement from GW in March and said he would have routed it to the board if he had.

Hutchinson stated that she did not receive the Agreement in September, however, she did receive it from Deitchler in November via email a half hour ahead of the board’s Nov. 15 meeting. Hutchinson forwarded the email to the Pathfinder.

In the email, Deitchler wrote that Karen Sanchez of the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development (RD) was still reviewing the contract.

A month later, at the Dec. 20 board meeting, board secretary Felicity Derry told the board that she had communicated with Deitchler about the Agreement. Deitchler informed Derry that the Agreement had been sent to Hutchinson but it wasn’t ready for the board to sign because Sanchez was still reviewing it.

In an email to the Pathfinder, Pozega wrote that the Seeley Lake sewer project has had many challenges that have delayed the project. GW didn’t intend to blame anyone but reaffirmed GW’s account of when the Agreement was sent to the District.

Pozega forwarded an email to the Pathfinder that was sent to Robertson March 22, 2018 with a draft of the Agreement attached. In the email Deitchler requested Robertson to let her know if the Agreement was acceptable, as GW would like to send it to RD for review.

Pozega clarified that while RD is not required to review the Agreement ahead of the board signing it, GW recommends RD review to cut down on the need for contract amendments at a later date.

The Agreement Pozega and Deitchler presented to the board at their Jan. 17 meeting was the first time the board was given a version that had gone through RD review. The Agreement showed significant changes from the Agreement emailed to Hutchinson in November as it incorporated RD’s comments that GW received Dec. 19.

Upon reviewing the Agreement at the Jan. 17 meeting, the board voted to sign it so GW could get back to work.

RD also has to sign the Agreement before GW can start and RD personnel are currently on furlough due to the federal government shut down. Pozega has been informed that once the government shutdown is over RD will start working though it’s backlog, prioritizing projects that are actively under construction so this District’s Agreement will fall down on the list.

Pozega said there is approximately $20,000 in unspent money from the last Agreement that they can use to get started. He said GW is really close to having the collection system design done and they would like to get it finished first.

Director Davy Good questioned if the $20,000 would be enough to complete the collection system design. Pozega said it would.

In the new project schedule, GW has estimated RD will be able to sign the Agreement by the end of February. If that happens GW plans to have the 90 percent design to present to the board in April.

Once final design is done in mid May the Department of Environmental Quality and RD must review it. Two months is given for the review though Deitchler noted that the state has 90 days by state law. The project would be bid in August with a winning bidder selected by the end of September.

If everything goes perfectly they would be able to break ground in October.

Pozega said it is possible to start the project going into winter. Other projects recently worked on by GW have worked though the winter.

In other business, the board voted to make Director Mike Boltz the interim contact for GW until the District hires a new District Manager. Missoula County informed the board that the county will not be providing a district manager. The board plans to discuss the process of hiring the position at its next meeting.

The next regular board meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m., Feb. 21 at the Missoula County Satellite Office located at 3360 Highway 83.