Will County Gazette

On January 3 the Crest Hill City Council met where various matters were approved regarding construction at the City Center, some of which irked officials due to extras costs.

City Administrator Jim Marino brought several orders of business to the board, which began with the relocation of the automatic door buttons, card scanners and emergency buttons outside the doors of the city center and police station to be ADA compliant. The height of the buttons need to be changed to meet the requirements. Marino said that this was not the first ADA requirement done incorrectly at the construction project, and it will cost $12,500 to fix.

“So this is yet another ADA requirement that was done incorrectly,” Ward 3 Alderman Tina Oberlin said while shaking her head and sighing.

City Administrator Marino replied that it was and during the roll call for a vote Oberlin said “I’ll begrudgingly say yes because it needs to be corrected.”

The board voted unanimously in favor to carry out the motion.

The council also voted to approve a cleaning contract with Superior Cleaning Solutions for a final cleaning of the building as construction is completed, amounting to $32,020. Cleaning work will begin in finished rooms and the police station so they can ensure a clean work environment as soon as possible. A final change was a change order for $1,400 adding columns inside the city hall entrance. This is for a fire alarm relocation for coding purposes.

Also voted on was a contract for caulking in the buildings, which is a slight change from the original proposal. The amount displayed in the agenda was $11,800 but the project manager determined they should accept additional areas offered, bringing the total to $13,290. This also frustrated the city council, as these were areas that should have been identified and completed when windows and doors were installed last year.

“Whoever did this should be responsible,” said Alderman Scott Dyke. “We shouldn’t be paying $13,000. This should have been done to begin with.”

Dyke felt that the companies who were involved should come back and do the work for no cost. City Administrator Marino pointed out that it is a question of who was on-site that was supposed to make sure the work got done correctly.

“It was also the person onsite responsible for making sure the contractors got the work done and should have caught it,” Marino said. “And if it wasn't done, they would have brought the contractors in to complete the work. At this point, I can't tell you whether it was the contractors' fault or if it was the person onsite at the time trying to make sure the contractors were doing their work."

Dyke said he was completely against extra costs and that the work should have been done right initially. He said he would not vote for it, but in the end, the motion carried.