The Board of City Commissioners of Ashland, Kentucky, on Aug. 28 voted to table a proposed amendment that would increase the engineering firm's fee for final design and construction services for the wastewater treatment plant expansion. The amendment, described in the ordinance as Amendment No. 1 to the agreement with Strain Associates Inc., would raise the firm's fee by roughly one-third, according to engineering staff.

Commissioners directed staff to ask the engineering firm to appear at a future meeting to explain the request. "When somebody's asking for a one-third increase in their fee, then it might behoove them to show up in person and be able to defend the request," one commissioner said during debate.

Engineering Director Barry Atkins told the commission the amendment would allow the city to apply a $4 million STAG grant to engineering services rather than construction, avoiding the late introduction of Buy America requirements into the project and potential rebidding. Atkins said project delays increased the engineering and construction timeline: the construction phase rose from 36 months to 42 months and the bidding/engineering phase lengthened by about 1.5 years due to state approvals and staff turnover. "With this amendment, engineering cost will be about 5.3% of the construction cost, almost half of typical fees," Atkins said.

Commissioners and staff also cited additional electrical engineering work and extended on-site oversight as factors that contributed to the higher fee. The commission moved to table the ordinance to allow the firm to appear and answer questions; a voice vote approved the tabling.

No final action on the amendment was taken at the meeting. Staff said any money not used by the firm would return to the city or be applied to operations-and-maintenance manuals and standard operating procedures.

Background: The engineering department reported it has 25 projects totaling more than $122 million, including an ongoing wastewater treatment plant expansion. The project previously received federal grant funds and has experienced delays tied to state approvals and federal requirements, according to staff.

The commission did not adopt the amendment and will revisit the matter after the engineering firm meets with commissioners.